The hosts began the maiden edition of the Aisha Buhari Cup with a hard-fought victory against their West African opponents.
Nigeria's Gift Monday scored twice in the second half, thanks to a pair of assists from Asisat Oshoala, to lead the Super Falcons to a 2-0 victory against Mali at the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in the first edition of the Aisha Buhari Cup.
The hosts had squandered many scoring chances when home-based teen prodigy Monday broke the stalemate in the 82nd minute, only five minutes after coming off the bench.
With a beautiful pass, Barcelona star Oshoala set up the first goal.
On the stroke of full time, the four-time African Player of the Year and the FC Robo star collaborated once more to increase the Falcons' lead and secure three important points.
Mali is still without a win against Nigeria's women's national team, but their coach, Saloum Mohammed Houssein, was relieved that the Female Eagles did not suffer another humiliating setback at the hands of their renowned neighbors.
I'm unhappy with the result against Nigeria, but I'm satisfied with my team's performance, Houssein remarked after the game.
It's also reassuring that we didn't lose by a large margin. When we used to play Nigeria, we would lose by 6 to 8 nil.
We will return to training to polish all of the areas where we did not perform well enough before the next game (against Morocco).
We invited our young squad here to help us create a team for the future.”
After seeing his men stop a dismal run of results, Nigeria coach Randy Waldrum breathed a sigh of relief.
During their US Tour Series in June, the defending African champions failed to win any of three matches against Jamaica, Portugal, and the United States.
And, despite the team's struggles in the first quarter, the American coach was overjoyed to guide the Falcons back to victory.
We didn't get off to a fantastic start, but we fared considerably better in the second half, according to Waldrum.
Mali deserves credit for exceeding expectations and promptly closing the gap.
We made some adjustments in the second half and performed considerably better. The American coach was dissatisfied with the first half but immensely proud of his team's comeback in the second.
Read More:
No comments:
Post a Comment