Zimbabwe senior national womens’ football coach Rosemary Mugadza still believes her team can turn the tables when they travel to Nigeria in two weeks for the reverse fixture of the African Women’s Championships.
The Mighty Warriors are trailing the Super Falcons 2-0 from the first leg played at Rufaro Stadium on Sunday.
Evelyn Nwabuoko and Stella Mbachu scored for the 2010 World Cup finalists. However, save for those two goals, there was not much to differentiate the two teams in terms of quality on the field.
Even the presence of African Women Footballer of the Year Perpetua Nkwocha, who is based in Sweden, and two other foreign, based players, Ebi Onome (Sweden) and Rita Chikwelu (Turkey), could not intimidate the hosts who showed determination throughout the match.
“In all fairness, we deserved something from that match. We could have won comfortably had the strikers converted their chances. We had three clear-cut chances inside the box, but we couldn’t score. If the strikers can improve, I think we still have a big chance to qualify. We have to work on that aspect before we go to Nigeria.
“We also need to work with our defence. The two goals that we conceded were out of our own making. We need to make sure we are tight at the back,” said Mugadza.
“We played better than them, but we lost the match on experience. Nigeria are the number one-ranked team in Africa and they have been to the World Cup before, so they are more experienced than us and it showed in the match. They knew exactly what they wanted to do.
“They knew they are slower than us, so they were very composed at the back with their slow build-ups to frustrate us. It is their wingers who are dangerous. They are fast and we will work on ways to counter them,” added the former Mighty Warriors captain.
