Nigeria’s female national team, Super Falcons’ coach, Justin Madugu is raising the ante ahead of his side’s quarter-finals clash with Cameroon at the ongoing Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON 2026), as he says his squad must ‘put the right foot forward’ in order to win Sunday’s game.
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Sports247 reports that Madugu acknowledged that his players committed a huge error of underating Malawi in their first game and paid the price with a 3-2 loss, which almost sent them packing from the first round for the first time in history.
Although his team bounced back to defeat Zambia 1-0 in their next game, Madugu recalled that getting a red card in that encounter was another mistake by his side, and admitted they must not commit any blunder versus Cameroon on Sunday.
He confessed that he feels lucky that his team survived all the errors they committed in the group stage, especially now that Afircan football has gone beyond the stage of minnows appearing at the continental showpieace, and charged his players to go all out for victory on Sunday.
Madugu further acknowledged that his players will have to step up their efforts versus Cameroon, one of their main rivals over the years in the competitions’s history, who topped Group D after beating Ghana’s Black Queens and Mali.
Sunday’s game also renews echoes of intense rivalry between Nigeria and their eastern neighbours, with the winner sealing an automatic ticket to the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil, which Madugu noted makes the fixture more crucial than ever.
While the Falcons have never lost a game to Cameroon in WAFCON’s history and even defeated the hosts 1-0 to lift the 2016 title in Yaoundé, Madugu pointed out that qualification for the World Cup makes this game one to face with all seriousness it deserves.
“We cannot afford to make the mistakes we were making at the group stage. We need to put our best foot forward and tread cautiously. It is a lesson for us to understand that African football has grown. If you make a mistake, you are punished, except you get a second chance.
“It’s a final for us. We won’t take it for granted. We put ourselves in a very difficult position, but thank God we managed to get out of it.The competition is just starting for us,” Madugu submitted.
