Falcons seek revenge against Cameroon

[MrVan]

The Super Falcons of Nigeria will begin the defence of the African Women trophy they won two years ago in a mouth-watering fixture against the Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon.

The Falcons will be aiming to avenge their elimination from the race to the London Olympics by Cameroon. They lost 4-3 on penalties after aggregate scores stood at 3-3.

The Super Falcons are yet to lose to Cameroon at the AWC. The first meeting between the two nations at full international level was when they clashed in a 1991 World Cup qualifier when Nigeria triumphed 6-0 on aggregate.Nigeria again beat Cameroon in the final of 2004 AWC 5-0, before both countries met in 2010 edition in the semi final with Falcons victorious 5-1.

Cameroon stars include Ajara Nchout of Energy Voronezh, Jeanette Yango, Madeline Ngono and Francoise Bella, while Nigeria coach Kadiri Ikhana will rely on tested campaigners led by Perpetua Nkwocha (Sunnana SK, Sweden), Stella Mbachu, Rita Chikwelu, Onome Ebi (Attesihir Belediyen, Turkey), Helen Ukaonu (Sunnana SK, Sweden) and Precious Dede.

They will be missing strikers Francisca Ordega and Desire Oparanozie, who have not been released by their new Russian club.

The Falcons have won this biennial competition a record six times and are eager to win at Equatorial Guinea where they failed in 2009.

"Falcons are favourites to win AWC again, but they have to take it one game at a time because we also have remarkable improvements in the other countries, particularly a country like Cameroon," former Falcons' coach, Ismaila Mabo told MTNFootball.

"The gap is no longer very wide between the two teams and Cameroon have some huge girls, who are robust, hard tacklers."

Vanguard Nigeria

[Folami David]

a dying minute goal did the magic for us