Sports
2023WWC: Nigeria Begin Campaign Against Olympic Champions Canada
The Super Falcons of Nigeria will start their 2023 World Cup quest when they file out against Canada in a Group B encounter.
Nigeria, having participated in all editions of the Women’s World Cup, will battle the Olympic champions at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium, Australia.
Despite making all editions of the global showpiece, Nigeria have only managed to reach the quarter-final once. That was in 1999 when they lost dramatically 4-3 to Brazil.
In the last edition of the competition, the West Africans bowed out in the round of 16 after crashing to France.
With just four wins in 26 World Cup matches, the Super Falcons are eager to rewrite history in Australia and New Zealand.
Asides from The Maple Leafs and Nigeria, other teams in Group B include co-hosts Australia and the Republic of Ireland.
When Nigeria start their 2023 World Cup campaign against the CONCACAF, they will be taking on familiar foes. Both sides have met four times, twice in the competition – group stage in 1995 and 2011.
The North Americans have won once, two of the matches ended in draws while Nigeria emerged victorious on one occasion.
But Canada’s coach Priestman believes Nigeria are no pushovers.
“With Nigeria, you could argue that their consistency hasn’t been great, but when they’re good, they’re really good. I just think we just need a calmness and a belief in what we do well. We’ll be going to try and top the group,” the coach told FIFA.com.
Coach Randy Waldrum’s girls have won three and lost two of their last five games. But their opponents have managed one win in the same number of matches, losing four of them.
He is already anticipating a tough tie with Canada.
“Canada are the Olympics Gold medalists and we know they are going to be very good. We played them twice the last year and have a lot of respect for them,” he said, according to FIFA. “They are a very good side, very well coached, but I think we can have the ability to be successful if we perform and stick to our gameplan.”
Team News, Players to Watch (Nigeria)
While Nigeria may have had some off-field skirmishes in the lead-up to the tournament, that seems to have fizzled away and the team is raring to go.
So far, there are no reports of injury worries for them heading into the clash against Bev Priestman’s charges. But Rasheedat Ajibade and Halimat Ayinde won’t play in the game after being sent off in Nigeria’s semi-final loss to Morocco at the 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON).
Against Canada, Nigeria will be backing on in-form Barcelona Femeni star Asisat Oshoala to lead the line. The African Player of the Year is the first from the continent to get a female Ballon d’Or nomination.
She is also fresh off a second consecutive Women’s Champions League crown with the Catalonian side.
The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has announced venues and dates for the quater-final of the President Federation Cup.
Plateau United and Rangers will clash at the Area 3 Stadium in Abuja.
The encounter between Akwa United and Kwara United will be played at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu.
Abakaliki FC abd Nasarawa United will lock horns at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City, while Wikki Tourists and Ikorodu City clash is billed for the Bwari Stadium in Abuja.
All the matches will kick-off at 4pm on Saturday, May 3rd, 2025.
The winner of the competition will represent Nigeria in the CAF Confederation Cup next year.
Sports
U-20 AFCON: Flying Eagles Coach Unveils 24- Man Squad
The team is scheduled to play a series of warm-up matches in Egypt before their group opener against Tunisia on May 1.
Head coach of the U-20 national team, Flying Eagles, Aliy Zubairu, has unveiled a 24-man squad for the upcoming U-20 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that the 2025 U-20 AFCON will take place from April 27 to May 18.
Zubairu named first-choice goalkeeper, Ifeanyi Harcourt, defender and captain, Daniel Bameyi, midfielder Sulaiman Alabi, and forward Kparobo Arierhi in the squad.
The squad is a blend of home-based and foreign players who have intensified training in Abuja ahead of the tournament.
Some of the top foreign-based players invited include: Emmanuel Chukwu, Precious Benjamin, all of German outfit TSG Hoffenheim and Kparobo Arierhi (Lillestrom SK, Norway).
The Flying Eagles, who are seven-time African champions and two-time FIFA Under-20 World Cup runners-up, will depart Nigeria on Sunday for Cairo in a bid to clinch an eighth continental title.
The team is scheduled to play a series of warm-up matches in Egypt before their group opener against Tunisia on May 1.
They will then face Morocco on May 4, followed by a clash against Kenya on May 7 to wrap up the group games.
Sports
Ex-Man Utd star Bastian Schweinsteiger ‘splits from wife’
It was reported that the two are frequently separated by thousands of kilometers, with Ivanovic staying in Serbia with her kids while Schweinsteiger travels the world, and while this situation persists, their relationship kept straining from all angles.
Ex-Manchester United and Bayern Munchen star, Bastien Schweinsteiger and wife Ana Ivanovic are now separated from their union.
German outlet, Blunte, reports that the couples, having married for nine years, have now being separated since two months ago.
The couple has three kids between them.
It was reported that the two are frequently separated by thousands of kilometers, with Ivanovic staying in Serbia with her kids while Schweinsteiger travels the world, and while this situation persists, their relationship kept straining from all angles.
In addition, the reports says that while the couple’s last Instagram post together was in December 2024, they haven’t been spotted together for months despite getting married in Venice nine years ago.
It now remains to be seen whether both couples can eventually reconcile and work things out as the former midfielder is currently in Jakarta, Indonesia, leaving Ivanovic, a tennis ace who won the 2008 French Open, to rely on the support of her parents and brother who also live in Serbia.
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