Nigeria’ female national team, Super Falcons’ coach, Justin Madugu has thrown up a strong hint that his side will employ ‘a flexible approach’ to help them get victory over Zambia this Saturday in their second match at the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON).
Sports247 reports that Madugu acknowledged it is imperative that his team wins the game in Rabat, Morocco, as they lost their first match 3-2 against debuting Malawi, and another defeat would mean failing to reach the semi-finals and subsequently miss the 2027 FIFA World Cup.
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That would be the first time ever that Nigeria misses any edition of the Female Mundial and Madugu assured it is a major setback that he and his players do not want to experience, hence the renewed zeal and determination with which they will enter Saturday’s game versus Zambia.
He conceded that his side did not do well in their opening match, which led to their shock defeat by Malawi, but the veteran tactician and former lecturer reasoned that the flexible quality of his players and their ability to adjust to different tactical approaches will make a difference on Saturday.
“There will always be criticism and comments when things like this go wrong. We accept those things. We accept responsibility for whatever happened, and then we’ll go back and try to work on whatever mistakes we may have noticed. The players in the team are very flexible.
We have a lot of very flexible players in the team. We will need to get over whatever may have happened. We’ll get it right the next time,” Madugu assured.
Sports247 reports that the last time both sides met (July 18th, 2025), the Falcons won5-0 in a quarter-finals fixture that was also played in Morocco and took Nigeria to three
victories over the Zambians, whose only win versus the 10-time African champions was 1-0 in the WAFCON 2022 third-place match.
However, Zambia appears to be the better side on current form, following their 6-0 spanking of Egypt in their first match of this year’s WAFCON, with four goals from the captain, Barbra Banda as well as one each by Racheal Nachula (penalty) and Eneless Phiri.
