Super Falcons coach, Justin Madugu, has apologised to Nigerians and accepted responsibility for the team’s 1-0 defeat to Cameroon in the quarter-finals of the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations.
Nigeria’s defeat ended the Super Falcons’ hopes of securing automatic qualification for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil through the WAFCON semi-finals.
Speaking in an interview circulated on social media, Madugu said his players gave their best but failed to make their opportunities count when it mattered most.
“The ladies played the best that they could, but that’s the way the game was designed to go. We apologise and I take responsibility for that. We still have a second chance and we will do our best to see what comes out of it,” he said.
The coach rejected suggestions that the result was connected to promises made by the National Sports Commission, insisting that the team created more opportunities against Cameroon than it had in its previous matches.
“And again, well, I wouldn’t attribute that to the promises made by the National Sports Commission. If you’ll agree with me, in all the games we played, they never created the kind of chances they created today,” Madugu said.
According to him, the decisive problem was Nigeria’s inability to convert those opportunities, with the team lacking precision in the final stages of its attacks.
“But it’s just that the conversion was not right and we were not precise until we got to the finishing,” he said.
Madugu said the failure to convert the chances ultimately prevented the Super Falcons from finding the goals they needed to overcome Cameroon.
“That accounted for why we couldn’t score the goals from the chances that we created. It’s just one of the things that happened,” he added.
The coach also acknowledged the disappointment and pain caused by the defeat, particularly given the significance of Nigeria’s World Cup qualification hopes.
“I quite understand the pains everybody is going through. We all know what it means for all of us as a country,” Madugu said.
Despite the setback, Madugu stressed that Nigeria’s World Cup hopes are not over, saying the team still has another route to pursue.
“And like I said, I apologise and take responsibility for that. But we still have a second chance and we’ll give it our all to make sure that we do not disappoint and go the same way that the men do,” he said.
The Super Falcons must now regroup and pursue qualification through the remaining pathway after missing out on the automatic World Cup ticket reserved for the WAFCON semi-finalists.
(The Sun)