Head Coach of Nigeria’s women senior national team, Florence Omagbemi, has admitted that her players were carried away, despite defeating South Africa 1-0 to qualify for the final of the African Women’s Cup of Nations.
Desire Oparanozie scored the only goal of the game in the second half, as the defending champions won a tight encounter in Limbe.
“First of all, I want to give credit to the players again. Our approach in the first half was different from the second,” Omagbemi said afterwards.
“We had a game plan but some of the players were carried away by the emotions of the occasion.
“There was some nervousness noticed even among some of the key players of my team.
“I was surprised to see them get overwhelmed by the occasion.
“In the second half, we asked them to try to relax.
“They all wanted to play in the final but to do that, they had to be relaxed.
“In such games, if you try to do too much, you will make mistakes.
“We are an attacking team and did not try to play defensively after we scored.
“The game against South Africa was not one of our best games but I give credit to the players for winning, despite not playing very well.”
Nigeria will now face hosts, Cameroun, in Saturday’s final at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo in Yaoundé.
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