Nigeria’s Super Falcons have been drawn to play the winner of a first round fixture between Guinea and Senegal to qualification for the 10th African Women Championship finals, to be hosted by Cameroon.
The seven-time African champions who won the last edition of the competition in Namibia were drawn into the second and final round of qualifiers alongside two-time winners Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire.
While the first round of the qualifiers take place in March 2016, the second round will see the Falcons, who lost to Equatorial Guinea in the race to the Olympics, play away to either Guinea or Senegal on the weekend of 8 – 10 April, with the return leg in Nigeria two weeks later.
Equatorial Guinea will play the winner of the first round fixture between Mali and Morocco; Cote d’Ivoire will tackle the winner of Libya/Egypt; Ghana will take on the winner between Burkina Faso/Tunisia; South Africa are up against winner of Botswana/Mauritius.
Similarly, Rio Olympics–bound Zimbabwe have to see the back of Tanzania before they can reach the final round, where they either meet Zambia or Namibia.
Falcons won the African Women’s Championship title in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2010 and 2014.
By Olisemeka Obeche