Head coach of Nigeria’s women senior national team, Florence Omagbemi has hailed her players’ resilience, after they won this year’s African Women Cup of Nations.
The Super Falcons beat hosts Cameroon 1-0 in the final played at a packed Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo in Yaounde, to lift the title for a record 10th time.
Omagbemi, who has now won it as a player and coach, said they had to survive their various opponents on their way to glory.
“I want to thank the Cameroonian team and the coach for giving us a good game. It was a great final to watch seeing the best two teams in Africa competing and the scoreline,” Omagbemi said in a post match press conference.
“As regards to our journey to the tournament, I will give my players all the credits for achieving these despite all odds because they deserve it.
“It was a long journey from Nigeria to the final, our preparation and the way we got our team together to come to this tournament even though we realized we’re defending champions, we still try to step up our game and our game plan.
“At the beginning of our game against Mali, we took it one game at a time and that was my communication in all my press conference as we must give other teams some respect as they were all here to compete for the trophy.
“Against the Mali game, it was a good result though most people [saw] we had a good score margin against the Malian team as we didn’t take them for granted.”
“Against the Ghana team, we got a good result but most people didn’t believe in our performance.
“I use to say it that we were here to defend our title. All the way to our game against Kenya – the scoreline was different and we keep asking the question of what is wrong with our team.
“Even though to the semifinals we played against South Africa, it was a different approach and we came out victorious.
“As a defending champion, you have the pride and the prestige – the players understood all this pressure, stick to plan and playing together as a team because every game we play comes with different expectation.
“Even though with the crowd here, at the end of the day we came out victorious and even though we only saw one or two chances, all I care about is the victory and that’s all that matters right now and I want to celebrate that with everyone.”
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