Thomas Dennerby: Super Falcons showed the world Nigeria’s great potential

Super Falcons head coach Thomas Dennerby says the team proved to the world at the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup in France that the Nigerian ladies are improving and can get better with the rich talents that abound back home.

The Super Falcons reached the knockout stage of the Women’s World Cup finals for the first time in 20 years but were sent packing by two-time champions, Germany, who won their France 2019 Round of 16 clash 3-0 on Saturday.

Nigeria first reached the knockout stage of the Women’s World Cup in the 1999 edition hosted by the USA. Brazil defeated the Super Falcons 4-3 via golden goal in the quarter-finals of the then 16-team tournament.

Germany eased out the Nigerian team at the 2019 edition in France, but Dennerby believes Nigeria have enough talent to hone a great team for the future tournaments.

Germany Captain Alexandra nodded in the curtain-raiser off a corner-kick in the 20th minute. Sara Daebritz doubled their lead from a spot-kick in the 27th minute – her third goal of the tournament, while Lea Schueller took advantage of Falcons’ defensive howler in the 82nd minute to score the third goal.

“I think we showed the whole world that Nigeria have a team that has improved a lot.

Of course you’re not satisfied to go out but you also have to recognise where we came from – and we’re just not ready yet,” Dennerby stated during the post-match press conference.
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“It’s important to play high-level teams like Germany because the players can see that even the smallest mistakes get punished.

But the second half was really good and now we just need to focus on improving and using all the FIFA dates to play matches. Because we have some really talented players back in Nigeria.”