Nigeria’s women team, the Super Falcons claimed a hard-fought 1-1 draw against Ethiopia in the first leg of the 2024 Olympic qualifiers on Wednesday afternoon at the Abebe Bikila Stadium, Ethiopia.
Rasheedat Ajibade scored a second-half equaliser to cancel out Ethiopia’s early lead, as the Super Falcons returned to action for the first time since their elimination from the FIFA Women’s World Cup in July.
Though Randy Waldrum was conspicuously missing on the sidelines, his ladies were widely touted to claim the victory in Wednesday’s tie but for most part of the game Falcons lacked the cutting edge and putting every foot wrong in the match.
Ethiopia took a shock lead in the 6th minute thanks to Birkie Amare, who slotted home from a goal mouth scramble.
In the 52nd minute the Falcons equalised through captain Rasheedat Ajibade, who volleyed home a long long range shot from out the box.
The Falcons thought they had grabbed the winner in the 92nd minute as substitute Ifeoma Onumonu headed home but it was ruled out for offside.
The second leg will come up on Tuesday, October 31 in Abuja.
After making a first appearance at the Olympics in Sydney 2000 and going on to feature at Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008, the Falcons have failed to qualify for the last three editions of the Olympics. They failed to qualify for London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
The winner on aggregate between Ethiopia and Nigeria will face the winner of the Cameroon/Uganda fixture for a place in the final round of the qualification series.
Next year’s Olympic Games will be held 26 July – 11 August in Paris and a few other places in France.
