By

Eniola Olatunji 

Supersonic Falcons of Nigeria on Friday in Casablanca, Morocco swept off the Copper Queens of Zambia diffusing the Copper to ordinary metal with a superlative 5-0 drubbing in the quarterfinals of the Women’s African Cup of Nations WAFCON.

The goal haul is the highest scored by any team in a single match of the tournament and the exalted Africa's best contrary to expectations of expected sudden death end is marching into the semifinal with a clean slate (yet to concede a goal).

It was 3-0 at half time as Osunachi Ohale nodded home a cross pass from Esther Okonkwo in the 2nd minute; Okonkwo got a telegram pass from Captain, Rasheedat Ajibade to score the second goal in the 33rd minute while Chinwedo (omo yibo) showed stamina selling dummies to two defenders to score the third goal in the 45th minute.

Zambia's great chance by Barbra Banda in the 12th  minute went wide for goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie to 'Buga' upon.

The resumption of play in the very physical and robust game, saw Nigeria playing like an Ochestra, with "Bad Merciless Coach BMC, Justin conducting adding two more goals to send the Zambians home.

Rampaging dynamite in attack, Esther Okoronkwo gave an assist to Oluyemisi Demehin to score the 4th goal in the 68th minute while 24 year old Florence Ijamilusi bade farewell to the dreaded free scoring Zambians in the 90+1 minute goal.

It was a stunning revengance to the 1-0 victory Zambia had on Nigeria at the 2022 games.

Zambia did the playing stringing 338-257 passes, dominated ball possession with 57-43% control sharing the yellow cards 1-1 as they made 9-8 foul records. Nigeria was impressive this time with 11-6 shots at goal banging 7-0 shots on target.

Zambia goalkeeper saved two glaring shots on target and Nigeria's defence remained solid with 5-4 interceptions blocking 3-1 shots.

The Supersonic Falcons of Nigeria are waiting to play the winner of the South Africa versus Senegal  quarterfinals match scheduled for tomorrow, a semifinal to be played on Tuesday 22nd July in Casablanca at 5pm.

The 2nd semifinal between winners of Mali/Morocco match and Algeria/Ghana match will also be played on Tuesday at 8pm in Rabat.

To get into the quarterfinals, Zambia had played 2-2 draw with Morocco; beat former champions Senegal 3-2 and narrowly beaten DR Cong by a lone goal placing 2nd in group A with 7 points scoring 6 goals and conceding 4 goals.

Nigeria obviously the favorite to win the tournament did not have an excellent performance though she silence Tunisia 3-0 in her opening match; beat Botswana that parked the Bus and took the key to the dressing room by a lucky goal and goalless with Algeria that attempted a higher level of frustrating the Nigerians. Nigeria and Algeria have clean slates in the tournament as they are yet to concede a goal, Nigeria topped group B with 7 points and scored 4 goals.

Nigeria and Zambia met thrice all in WAFCON encounters with Nigeria scoring 6 goals on 14th October 2014 and allowing Zambia score 3 goals at the 2nd half to make 6-3; cleared the Zambians 4-0 on 21st November 2018 but the tournament semifinal meeting of 22nd July 2022 at Stade Mohammed V, Casablanca where Vicentia Amedoma of Togo was the Ref ended in a disaster for Nigeria as Goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie gave out an own goal at the 29th minute of play.

Zambia ranked 65 in the world, went to the world cup once in 2023 and lost at group stages. She appeared 4 times at WAFCON making the quarters in 1995 but lost at group stages in 2014 and 2018 before the 2022 feat    

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.

Another quarterfinal match will be played later tonight at 8pm as hosts Morocco will trade tackles in soccer hostilities against the Female Eagles of Mali.

Morocco looks good to beat Mali in regular time as Mali beat Zambia by a lone goal; played 1-1 with the Black Queens of Ghana and were butchered 4-0 by South Africa yet qualified a best lucky loser. Mali scored 2 goals and conceded 4.

Mali ranked 78 in the world has no world cup appearance, been to WAFCON 7 times with best 4th place performance in 2018 and 6 loses at group stages. That 2018, Mali lost 0-2 to Ghana in the semifinal and 2-4 to Cameroon in the Losers Match.

The Atlas Lioness of Morocco ranked 60 went to the world cup only once in 2023 and was dropped in the Round of 16 encounters. They were 4 times at WAFCON losing at group stages in 1998 and 2000 but won the Silver in 2022.

Tomorrow Saturday, Algeria will play against Ghana and South Africa will test their might against Senegal in anther expected classical match.