Women friendlies: Morocco, Nigeria, South Africa endure mixed fortunes
The 2022 WAFCON hosts earned wins on the home ground over Gambia and Ghana as CAFOnline.com reviews the activities of some African women's national teams during the FIFA international women's window from April 4 to 12.
MOROCCO
Morocco 6-1 Gambia
Morocco 2-0 Ghana
The Atlas Lionesses enjoyed a moraleboosting preparatory streak, with a 6-1 thrashing of the Gambia in the friendly match on April 7. A brace from Salma Amani plus a goal each from Yasmin Mrabet, Imane Saoud, Rosella Ayane and Ghizlaine Chebbak ensured the Moroccoans humiliated the West Africans despite Cathrine Jatta's late consolation from a stunning free kick. Five days later, Reynald Pedros' side required a second half brace from Ayane to silence the Black Queens of Ghana in their second international friendly in Rabat.
NIGERIA
Nigeria 0-2 Canada
Nigeria 2-2 Canada
The reigning African champions bowed to a 2-0 defeat at the hands of the Olympic gold winners in the first leg of the two-match series in Vancouver on April 8. Second half strike from Jesse Fleming and header from Vanessa Gilles ensured the Canadians claimed their second win in history over the Super Falcons. Three days later, Randy Waldrum's side secured a morale boosting 2-2 draw against the Olympic champions at the Starlight Stadium. The Canadians came twice from behind late to avoid a home defeat as Ifeoma Onomonu and Rasheedat Ajibade's strikes were cancelled by Christine Sinclair and Shelina Zadorsky's efforts in Langford.
Nigeria coach Waldrum said: "The two games gave us a chance to see our areas of improvement, where we are and what we must do differently. Despite missing some notable names I've had the luxury of giving some players a chance and overall, I'm proud of the performance of our team. It's such a huge reward to get result against such a quality team like Canada. They created a lot of chances, but we stayed in shape. This will help prepare the team strongly for the Women's Afcon in Morocco."
SEYCHELLES
Seychelles 2-6 Singapore
Seychelles 0-9 Papua New Guinea
Seychelles continued from where they left off in the Football Association of Singapore (FAS) Tri-Nations Series 2022 in April following their February's 1-0 loss and 4-0 win over Maldives and 2-0 loss to Saudi Arabia. Before 2022, the East African island-nation endured years of hiatus but suffered a 6-2 opening defeat to the hosts at Jalan Besar Stadium on April 4. Natacha Bibi's brace was not enough to help the FIFA unranked African side escape humiliation against the Lionesses. Singaporean coach Angeline Chua's side also suffered a 9-0 defeat to Papua New Guinea in their second and final match of the tournament.
EGYPT
Egypt 0-1 India
Egypt 0-0 Jordan
Egypt bowed to a narrow 1-0 defeat to India in the opening match of a three-nation invitational tournament no thanks for Priyanka Sujeesh's solitary strike on April 5. The Cleopatras bounced back from their opening defeat to force reigning Arab Women's Cup champions Jordan to a 0-0 draw six days later. On the sidelines of the tournament in Jordan, hosts Jordan entered a sporting cooperate agreement with the Egyptian FA to develop women's football, including exchanging of experiences and competencies, jointly arranging training courses, training camps and friendly matches at various age grades.
SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa 1-5 Netherlands
Five-time WAFCON finalists Banyana Banyana were crushed by the reigning Europeans champions at the Kyocera Stadium in Den Haag on April 12. Thembi Kgatlana's first half strike was not enough to save the reigning Africa's vice champions from a humiliation at the hands of reigning world's vice champions.
South Africa coach Desiree Ellis said: “We wanted to see how the team plays under pressure. We have a lot of players that have not played league football and we were tested physically and mentally. We are not happy with the scoreline, but I think we showed what we need to do. We didn’t trust ourselves. We needed this test. We said we are going to test ourselves before the WAFCON and they duly tested us. It has given us a lot of things to work on: set pieces once again, conceding from set pieces."
The TotalEnergies women's AFCON group stage draw for the first ever 12-team tournament will be held on Monday, 25 April at the Technical Centre in Mohammed VI Complex in Rabat, Morocco.
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