Head coach of Nigeria’s Women’s national team, Florence Omagbemi is upbeat about the chances of her charges qualifying for the final of the ongoing 2016 Africa Women Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
Nigeria will go toe to toe with South Africa in the second semi-final of the competition on Tuesday, November 29 at Stade Municipal de Limbe, Limbe.
Omagbemi says the ‘spirit in camp is high’ and is optimistic of her side’s chances of getting past the hurdle posed by South Africa.
“As regards to the game we are playing tomorrow, we (Falcons) are fully prepared and focused.
“The spirit in camp is quite high and all the players are raring to go (on Tuesday).
“We know the opposition we will face against South Africa (on Tuesday) will be different as compared to what we faced against Kenya (in our last game) so the approach will be different,” Omagbemi submitted in a press conference in Limbe on Monday.
.
A win for Nigeria will see them book a ticket for the showpiece game on December 3 either against Cameroon or Ghana.
While the Nigeria coach is confident of a win, she knows the approach against Banyana Banyana must be spot on if the Falcons are to avoid being tripped by less-fancied opposition.
“And since we have reached the knock out stages, the expectation is high because we are getting closer to the trophy that we came here to defend in the first place.
“At this level of the competition, the expectation is different when compared to the group stage.
“We have tried to communicate this message to the players from the first game (we played in the competition) against Mali.
“It was important for us to get through the group stage and we wanted to finish as winners of our group.
“We tried not to make too many changes as regards the players who prosecuted our matches during the group stages.
“We have watched the games played by South Africa in the tournament so we know what to expect,” she said.
Nigeria have yet to lose a game and are the tournament’s top scorers with 11 goals from their three games so far.
South Africa finished as runners up in Group A, behind Cameroon with four points from three group matches.