Nigeria coach Thomas Dennerby has backed his team go as far as the quarterfinal of next month’s FIFA Women’s World Cup in France.
The nine-time African champions are drawn in a tough first round group that includes hosts France, Norway and Korea Republic.
The ‘Super Falcons’ have reached the quarterfinals once in 1999 in their previous seven appearances at the World Cup.
“I hope we can get to the quarterfinal and from there anything can happen,” the highly-experienced Swedish coach Dennerby predicted.
“We will put our heart into the World Cup.
“The whole team will do a big effort to reach the knockout stage and if we are there, the other teams will definitely have more pressure on them than us.”
The Falcons confidence leading up to France 2019 has been boosted by winning the sub-regional WAFU Nations Cup at the weekend in Abidjan after they crashed out of the competition in the semi-finals last year.
Dennerby said the Falcons will bring the fighting spirit they displayed at the WAFU Cup to the world stage.
“We fought a lot knowing that a game is not over till the final whistle from the referee and I hope we bring such spirit to the World Cup,” he said.
“We had a good tournament and the best team over five matches won even if we were a bit lucky in the final.”
The team have opened training camp in Austria prior to the World Cup, which kicks off on June 7.
By Kola Daniel
