Nigeria vs Brazil
Nigeria and Brazil's Paris 2024 Olympics Women's Football Tournaments Group C opening, which kicks off at 19:00 at the Matmut Atlantique Stadium in Bordeaux, France Games on Thursday (today), will pit the two African titans against one another.
Based on their respective accomplishments, both nations are without a doubt the unchallenged titans of their continents, and they will go up against one another hoping to launch their campaigns with a strong win.
The Seleção is the indisputable champion of South American football, having won the Copa América eight times out of the nine times the competition has been held. The Super Falcons have dominated African women's football, winning eleven Women's Africa Cup of Nations championships.
The two parties will square off for the third time today, with the Female Canaries claiming victories in their two previous encounters.
The first encounter was at the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 1999, where Brazil won 4-3 after extra time in the quarterfinals, taking a 3-0 lead before after only 35 minutes before Nigeria fought back bravely in the second half to restore parity. The South Americans found the winner in the 104th minute of play.
Not as close was the second meeting at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Nigeria had the lead because to a constant Nkwocha penalty, but Brazil's attacker Cristiane scored a spectacular hat-trick to send the Falcons down 3-1.
When the two teams square off today, Randy Waldrum's team—which is making its 16th Olympic appearance—hopes to defeat the Brazilians for the first time.
They will, however, have a difficult battle against the ladies of Arthur Elias, who arrived at the Olympics with high spirits having won 10 of their previous 15 games after the coach replaced Pia Sundhage in September 2023.
Nigerian midfielder Christy Ucheibe stated prior to the Falcons' first game that they would be heading to the Olympics to compete.
“The training is good. The preparation is good. The spirit is high. Everyone is ready from the coaches, players, and staff, and everyone in camp is so happy and fighting so hard to prepare better for the Olympics,” said the Benfica player.
We are going to compete because no team is easy to beat, and I have no doubt that we will do better than we did at the previous World Cup.
Adriana, a forward from Brazil, added that the Falcons' first game will be critical to their season.
"This is an important first game. It really will remain like way forever. Either way, we have a lot of work ahead of us with this launch. And proceed cautiously," the forward informed Sambafoot.
