By Victor Kanayo
A delegation of Ethiopia’s senior women national team on Sunday arrived Abuja, ahead of Tuesday’s Paris 2024 Olympics second round, second leg qualifying match against Nigeria’s Super Falcons.
Heritage Times HT reports that the 35-person delegation flew into the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport aboard an Ethiopian Airways flight at noon.
Match Officials Also In
Also in Nigeria’s Federal Capital is the squad of match officials, led by Christine Ziga from Ghana, who will serve as the match commissioner, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) disclosed in a statement made available to Heritage Times HT.
According to the statement, there is also referee Edoh Kindedji from Togo, with her compatriots Abra Sitsofe Agbedanou and Kossiwa Kayigan Awoutey who will serve as assistant referee 1 and assistant referee 2 respectively. Yacine Samassa from Mauritania will be in the role of fourth official.
Daloba Oulare from Guinea will be the referee assessor.
NFF Charge
Meanwhile, the General Secretary of NFF, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, at the weekend charged the Super Falcons to work as a team and bring their A-game to the crucial encounter.
Sanusi spoke after watching the nine-time African champions train at the Turf Arena in Abuja, and also reminded players and officials that Nigeria has been absent from the past three Women Olympic Football Tournaments and this certainly does no credit to the country’s rating as a leading global power in women’s football.
The Falcons trained at the Turf Arena on Friday and Saturday before moving to the MKO Abiola National Stadium on Sunday.
Last Training Day For Falcons, Lucy
On Monday, both the Falcons and visiting Ethiopian senior women team, also known as Lucy will have their official training sessions on the turf of the magnificent arena.
Nigeria and Ethiopia played out a 1-1 draw during the first leg in Addis Ababa last week.
The winner over two legs will take on the winner of the Cameroon/Uganda fixture in the third round of the series.
Uganda, who narrowly eliminated Rwanda in the first round, are in the ascendancy after defeating the Indomitable Lionesses 2-0 in Kampala on Thursday.
