By

Eniola Olatunji 

Nigeria's Supersonic Falcons on Saturday night at the Olympic Stadium, Rabat came from two goals down to clinch history winning the Women’s African Football Cup of Nations for a record 10th time by sniffling stubborn Atlas Lionesses of Morocco 3-2.

The Moroccans scored two goals before the players went to the Locker rooms for half time as Chizlane rifled home the opener in the 13th  minute when the Falcons were still jittery and another sloppy  defensive work made Jraidi to connect Sanaa Mssoudy to get the 2nd goal from the left wing at the 24th minute.

The Darman miracle of 1985 where Nigeria beat Russia at the world cup came to play again as the Moroccans who were busy locking down Captain Rasheedat Ajibade and Alozie at the back lost grip certainly with the help of Laser lights consistently flashed on the faces of the Falcon players.

VAR allowed a penalty for Nigeria in the 62nd minute which attack arrow head, Esther Okoronkwo neatly tucked in to motivate the Nigerian players and fans.

Same Okoronkwo found Sade Ijamilusi who scored Nigeria's equalizer in the 71st minute..

Okoronkwo supervised the burial of the Atlas Lionesses in the Red Sea of Nigerian football like Moses when she again found Jennifer Jenny baby  Echegini to seal victory in the 88th minute.

Super Falcons has never lost the finals to any host team.  She defeated South Africa 2-0 in 2000 and piped Indomitable Lionesses of Cameroon by a lone goal in 2016 qualifying them now as Prolific lion tamers of Africa. Nigeria also never lost a WAFCON  final match.

President Bola Tinubu and his wife, Oluremi became Professors of Motivational Speeches sending words to the perpetual African Winners to bring back the newly introduced trophy to Nigerians who are waiting to celebrate their victory.

A ten man strong delegation flew to Rabat to assert  Nigeria's female football dominance in Africa.

The Supersonic Falcons have hit a financial jackpot as Nigeria will pocket $1m as against $500k of 2022. Nigeria has agreed that the Falcons take 30% of the $1m. Which will be $300k or N540m.

There was a memorable encounter between both countries three years ago where Rasheedat Ajibade was red carded for a foul on a Moroccan and Halimat Ayinde was also red carded in the same WAFCON semifinal clash. 

Nigeria had to play 9 against 11 players which badly affected Nigeria in the 3rd place match as the two key players were not available for the 3rd place match against Zambia which Zambia won 1-0 via a 29th minute own goal by Goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie.

On 18th July 2022 in that semifinal match, Mssoudy scored an equalizer for Morocco in the 66th minute after Mrabet scored an own goal in the 62nd minute. Nigerian players were so confused and felt under severe pressure from a hostile environment that every player went to defend the goal area. 

Ref Maria Rivet of Mauritius was in charge with a capacity crowd of 45,562 routing for Morocco at the Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat which Morocco won 5-4 on penalties. Scorers for Morocco were Mrabet, Chebbak, Redoueni,El Chad and Ayane while scorers for Nigeria were Chkwelu, Out, Plumptre known as Oyinbo, and Monday. It was Onumonu that lost her kick and gave the finals ticket to Morocco.

I recall that despite the troubles, Rasheedat Ajibade of Nigeria; Chizlane Chebbak of Morocco and Hildah Magaia of South Africa that were top scorers of the tournament with three goals.

Nigeria knows how to neutralize dangerous players and turn them to mere passengers in a match. Ask Barbra Banda of Zambia what her nightmare was when Nigeria thumped her country 5-0 in this tournament. It is still the highest scored by a team in this tournament 

Morocco has gone to their Male Coach called Bald Man for technical advice to handled three rampaging Nigerian players in Ajibade, Okoronkwo and Chizuo who has three goals to her name already. Ajibade is a fiery player who exhibits skill, strength, vigor, passion and spray passes like water. Ajibade bagged the Woman of the Match plaque in three of her five matches namely against Botswana, Zambia and South Africa who were championship hopefuls on their rights.

Morocco’s journey to the final in group A started with a 2-2 draw with Zambia; she drilled Botswana 4-2 piped Senegal by a lone goal. She mauled Mali 3-1 in the quarterfinal and slightly edged out Ghana 4-2 on penalties with scores at 1-1 at full time in a match that Ghana scored in the first half when she had the game under control.

Nigeria sounded Tunisia a 3-0 victory to signal to all contenstants that nine times champions of Africa is not a joke; she piped Botswana that parked the bus at their goal mouth by a lone goal and drew goalless with stubborn Algeria all at the group stages. She then annihilated talking machines of Zambia 5-0 in the quarterfinal before she humbled the loud mouth South Africans 2-1 in the semifinal which the Mandela Babes Coach Desiree said it was mere luck to Nigeria.

Nigeria scored 11 goals; conceded only one goal scored by South Africa and had four clean slates meaning that her defence is as solid as the Olumo Rock. The insatiable desire of the Nigerian players to score from even outside the box or with fine headers is dreadful to the Moroccans who will rely on getting penalty kick during regular time of make Nigeria collect red cards as it happened in 2022 but Coach Justin Madugu who was assistant Coach at that time has assured that his team will be focused on Saturday.

Nigeria won the title an astonishing 9 times of which no African team has gone near. The wins were in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006 (five consecutive times); 2010, 2014 2016 and 2018. Nigeria reached semifinal in all their 12 previous appearances finishing 3rd in 2001 and placed 4th in 2012 and 2022.

Morocco ranked less than Nigeria being at a distant 60 in the world went to the world cup only once in 2023 and was ousted at R16 stages. She was at WAFCON finals three times and her best was the Silver at the last competition she hosted in 2022. She was booted out at the group stages in 1998 and 2000.

Morocco will host the 16th edition of WAFCON in March 2026 which will be their 3rd consecutive advantage of hosting African women.