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Asisat Oshoala: Barcelona and Nigeria forward suffers thigh injury
Barcelona’s Asisat Oshoala has been ruled out of Nigeria’s crucial 2022 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifying play-off in Ivory Coast after suffering another injury blow.
The four-time African Women’s Footballer of the Year, 27, injured her left thigh while training with Nigeria and will be sidelined for an estimated 10 weeks, her Spanish club announced.
Barcelona’s leading scorer this season and the top scorer in the Spanish top flight, with with 19 goals in 16 appearances, Oshoala only recently returned from a two-month lay-off with a knee injury.
The forward missed her country’s 2-0 win over Ivory Coast on Friday and will not feature in second leg of the play-off tie, which is scheduled for Abidjan on Wednesday.
Oshoala, the first African player to win the European Women’s Champions League, is not expected to return before the end of April, which means missing both legs of the sold-out Champions League quarter-final tie against Real Madrid next month.
Her country’s captain and the continent’s most decorated female footballer, Oshoala was expected to play a key role for the faltering Super Falcons against the Ivorians.
The Lady Elephants had stopped Nigeria, who are nine-time African champions, from reaching the 2020 Olympics.
Coach Randy Waldrum has come under huge criticism for his results, which include only edging past bitter rivals Ghana 2-1 to reach the second round of qualifying.
Africa’s biggest star
Oshoala, the maiden BBC Women’s Footballer of the Year winner in 2015, scored at the 2019 Women’s World Cup to help Nigeria reach the last 16 in France.
She joined Spanish outfit Barcelona from Chinese champions Dalian Quanjian in January 2019, initially on loan before signing a permanent deal five months later.
The former FC Robo and Rivers Angels star moved to Quanjian in February 2017 from English side Arsenal, with whom she won the Women’s FA Cup at Wembley in 2016.
She finished as the Chinese Women’s Super League top scorer in 2017 with 12 goals to help her club to the title.
Oshoala, who began her European career at Liverpool, won her third Women’s Africa Cup of Nations with the Super Falcons in Ghana in 2018, scoring three goals as Nigeria lifted the title for a record ninth time.
-BBC
Democratic Republic of Congo side, TP Mazembe are officially the champions of the CAF Women’s Champions League Morocco 2024.
A highly tactical and hard fought 1-0 victory in the final played in El Jadida’s Stade Ben Ahmed El Abdi against former champions and hosts, AS FAR saw the DR Congo side crowned the new champions of Africa for the first time – wiping away tears of their 2022 group stage exit.
With the crowd backing the hosts, Mazembe showed great resilience and courage in taking the match to the former champions who remain in search for what has been an elusive second title for them.
The deciding goal of the fourth edition of the tournament came courtesy of a converted spot kick by Marlene Kasaj in the opening 10 minutes, which Mazembe protected throughout the match to seal the historic victory.
Despite the early concession, AS FAR kept believing and surged forward in search of the leveller, but a resolute Mazembe defense kept the clean sheet throughout the opening half.
Coming back from the break, it was surprisingly Mazembe who looked more dangerous as they came out strong in an attempt to kill off the game.
The hosts eventually found their rhythm but again were met by a disciplined Mazembe defense, who kept the former champions at bay to secure Africa’s most sought-after women’s club football crown.
In addition to the coveted CAF Women’s Champions League trophy, TP Mazembe also take home $600 000 in prize money, while runners-up AS FAR take home $400 000.
-CAF
BY JOSEPH ODOEKWU
The National Chairman of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club (NFSC) Samuel Ikpea has tipped the Super Falcons of Nigeria to claim their 10th African Women’s Cup of Nations title in Morocco when they begin their campaign next year.
Ikpea’ remarks came after the Friday night draw that put Algeria, Tunisia and Botswana in the same group with the Super Falcons.
“Our girls are going to play in a group with two North African countries (Tunisia and Algeria). “It is going to be interesting, and I am optimistic that our girls will scale from our group”.
Nigeria will tackle two North African teams – Tunisia and Algeria – as well as Botswana, in Group B of the 13th Women Africa Cup of Nations finals taking place in Morocco next summer.
The Falcons will surely relish another meeting with Algeria’s Green Ladies, whom they defeated 2-0 and 4-1 respectively in two friendly matches in Nigeria last month.
Botswana eliminated Gabon in the qualifying series and Tunisia were the quarter-finalists at the last edition also hosted by Morocco.
At the draw conducted on Friday evening at the Technical Centre of the Mohamed VI Football Complex in Sale, outside Rabat, host nation Morocco, earlier slotted into Group A, learnt they will have to cope with Zambia, Senegal and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Cup holders South Africa are in Group C and will square up to Ghana, Mali and Tanzania in the three-week, 12-nation final tournament taking place 5th – 26th July 2025.
Hosts Morocco finished as runners-up in the last edition in July 2022, with Zambia taking the bronze after a 1-0 defeat of Nigeria in the third-place match.
GROUP A: Morocco, Zambia, Senegal, DR Congo
GROUP B: Nigeria, Tunisia, Algeria, Botswana
GROUP C: South Africa, Ghana, Mali, Tanzania
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