Nigeria defender Michelle Alozie says the gallant fight that the Super Falcons put up against England in the FIFA Women’s World Cup round of 16 was for Africa.
The Super Falcons bowed out of the competition on Monday after a goalless stalemate concluded with England advancing to the quarter-finals, courtesy of a 4-2 penalty shootout.
For the first time in the history of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, three African nations progressed to the round of 16, with Nigeria, Morocco and South Africa flying the African women’s football flag.
Speaking after the tightly contested affair, Alozie said they were disappointed, but proud of the fight they put up for Nigeria and the rest of Africa.
“I mean yeah, obviously this isn’t how we wanted our World Cup to end. We really had a lot of opportunities early on, myself included. We should have put them away sooner instead of letting it go to PK’s, especially with us being up one person but I can’t be more proud of this team” said Alozie.
“We probably had one of the hardest groups, some say the group of death. We came out and no one believed in us. We played over 90 minutes, going to PK’s with England, Europe’s top team, and so everyone kind of counted us out and put us as the underdog”.
“We kept fighting, we fought for Africa, we fought for Nigeria and I just hope everyone is proud of us but this isn’t the end, this is really only the beginning of the wave of Nigerian soccer” conclude Alozie.
Super Falcons coach, Randy Waldrum echoed her player’s sentiments, saying that he was proud of his sides performance, even though they could have won it had they buried their chances.
“I’m so proud of them, to come in and play like we did tonight. We had every opportunity to get it done. Unfortunately, we couldn’t quite get it done. We had the best chances, we hit the crossbar twice. When it gets to penalties, it’s anyone’s game,” said Waldrum.