{"id":3619,"date":"2026-07-30T17:18:09","date_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:18:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3619"},"modified":"2026-07-30T17:18:11","modified_gmt":"2026-07-30T17:18:11","slug":"falcons-know-what-is-at-stake-says-oshoala","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3619","title":{"rendered":"Falcons know what is at stake, says Oshoala"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Super Falcons forward Asisat Oshoala has urged Nigerians to continue supporting the team as they seek to recover from their shock opening defeat to Malawi at the 2026 Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tournament debutants Malawi announced their arrival in stunning fashion on Tuesday, beating 10-time champions Nigeria 3-2 in a thrilling Group C encounter in Rabat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Burna Boy - Higher [Official Music Video]\" width=\"980\" height=\"551\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/eKzmRnetw-c?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Chawinga sisters, Temwa and Tabitha, combined to inflict a memorable defeat on the Falcons, with Temwa scoring twice in a performance that exposed the vulnerabilities of Africa\u2019s most successful women\u2019s national team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oshoala started the match on the bench and replaced Esther Okoronkwo in the 83rd minute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, the veteran striker was unable to make a decisive impact despite Nigeria\u2019s late rally before Malawi sealed the victory with a third goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ahead of the Falcons\u2019 remaining two group matches, the 31-year-old believes there is still enough time for the team to respond.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s still a long competition, so there is still a lot of time to prepare for the next game,\u201d she told journalists after the match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe need their support right now. A World Cup ticket is at stake and this is the time we need everyone to support the team. We know the Super Eagles didn\u2019t qualify, so we know what\u2019s at stake and we know how Nigerians feel about this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Oshoala, a six-time winner of the CAF Women\u2019s Player of the Year award and one of the biggest figures in African women\u2019s football, admitted that the traditional gap between Nigeria and the rest of the continent is narrowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cSmaller nations are closing the gap for sure, but it\u2019s also a wake-up call for us to put in more effort, knowing that there are other teams who want to win this trophy as well,\u201d Oshoala said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Super Falcons are currently third in Group C without a point and will face group leaders Zambia on Saturday before concluding their group campaign against Egypt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nigeria must win both matches to guarantee qualification for the quarter-finals before attempting to secure a place in the last four, which would also earn the team qualification for the 2027 FIFA Women\u2019s World Cup in Brazil. <a href=\"https:\/\/punchng.com\/falcons-know-what-is-at-stake-says-oshoala\/\">(Punch)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Super Falcons forward Asisat Oshoala has urged Nigerians to continue supporting the team as they seek to recover from their shock opening defeat to Malawi at the 2026 Women\u2019s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco, PUNCH Sports Extra reports. Tournament debutants Malawi announced their arrival in stunning fashion on Tuesday, beating 10-time champions Nigeria 3-2 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":573,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[2872,3687,504,2873,424,503],"class_list":["post-3619","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-2026-womens-africa-cup-of-nations","tag-2027-fifa-womens-world-cup","tag-asisat-oshoala","tag-malawi","tag-nigeria","tag-super-falcons"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Falcons know what is at stake, says Oshoala - Tona Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Super Falcons forward Asisat Oshoala has urged Nigerians to continue supporting the team as they seek to recover from\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tona.today\/?p=3619\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Falcons know what is at stake, says Oshoala - 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