ZAMBIA head coach Nora Hauptle has commended the Super Falcons of Nigeria and admitted that they were the clearly superior side after the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) quarter-final clash on Friday.
The Super Falcons produced a ruthlessly efficient display to thrash the Copper Queens 5-0 in the quarter-final encounter in Casablanca, Morocco, with Osinachi Ohale, Chinwendu Ihezuo, Esther Okoronkwo, Tosin Demehin and Folashade Ijamilusi scoring.
“It was a very clear loss for us,” Hauptle said at ...-match press conference.
“Congratulations to Nigeria for the well-deserved victory. I think today we need to accept that Nigeria was better than us.
“Today none of us has been on top. Today, none of our players has been top, neither me as coach.”
Explaining further, the former Swiss women’s international, who had been boastful before the match said: “We just need to mention also that in the Nigerian squad, you see almost everyone plays abroad, either in France or America—they have much more players abroad.
“Nigeria is a country I think with 200 million people and Zambia with just 20 million. We don’t have so much talent.
“We’ve got at the moment nine or ten players abroad, and the rest play in the domestic league. We have also seen that, physically, we have seen that they are not on the same level. We need to accept. We need to go back and see how our players can go abroad early.”
The Super Falcons are up against defending champions South Africa in the semi-finals, after Banyana Banyana defeated Senegal 4-2 on penalties last night after their quarter-final ended 0-0 at full-time and extra-time.
The crunch semi-final is scheduled for Casablanca on Tuesday, with kick-off set at 5pm Nigerian time.