BRISBANE – Underestimate Nigeria at your peril. That is the harsh truth England are faced with ahead of their last-16 World Cup tie.
On the eve of his side’s biggest test at the tournament so far, Nigeria head coach Randy Waldrum spoke of his vision to transform women’s football in the country, calling for more investment and “changing the old boys’ club mentality” which has limited the number of female coaches in the nation. That was timelier than ever as Sarina Wiegman became the last woman standing in the dugouts of this World Cup.
“Nigeria could be a world power if we start to do things properly and invest like so many other nations need to as well,” he said.
It is a story which has taken the world by surprise but which has been decades in the making. “People outside Africa might be shocked, but those in Africa aren’t,” Waldrum surmises. Nigeria have won every Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) bar three and the threats they pose are all too familiar.
In her year at Barcelona, Lucy Bronze has seen first-hand the dangers of Asisat Oshoala, with 83 goals in her last 89 games for her club. The striker will go from formidable super-sub to starter now she has reached full fitness.
Chiamaka Nnadozie is just 22 and is already playing at her second World Cup, having become the youngest goalkeeper to do so in 2019.
And at least half of the Lionesses squad have played youth internationals with Ashleigh Plumptre, who played for England at every level until U23, who opted to play for Nigeria and said she knew “it was going to end up that way” facing her former teammates.
The Leicester City centre-back, deployed at full-back for her country, says the best part of playing for Nigeria is embodying the choice of dual national players. “I genuinely feel like I’m part of something bigger,” she says.
“A lot of the girls always say to me… even just then, Osi [Osinachi Ohale] the other centre-back just kind of put her arm around me and was like, ‘You have Nigerian spirit.’
“I’ve been brought into this team, the first camp I’ve been on I was really welcomed. And the experiences that I have with this team I’ve never had in my football career, ever. It’s really hard to put into words to be honest… before every game – yeah, every game this tournament so far – I’ve cried.”
“We face this day in day out when we play each other in the league,” England defender Jess Carter said. “We know what she [Plumptre] can do.”
Nigeria as a whole, are both “brilliant” and a “very athletic side”, Rachel Daly says. Alessia Russo believes it will be “another good test”, while Carter said they will be confident of pulling off yet another upset, adding: “Obviously they will, they’re going to be coming in confident, but I think every team going into the knockout stage has got to be confident.”
The advantage of having already played Australia is they have already toyed with one game of cat-and-mouse in the fitness of Sam Kerr. Whether or not England field Keira Walsh may not become clear until just hours before kick-off but having shifted to a 3-5-2 before putting six past China, inspired by a Lauren James brace, Wiegman could stick with her new system and ease the midfielder back in later in the tournament.
That result has turned England into the team to beat but for Nigeria, the stakes may be even higher.
“If you beat the Olympic gold medallists and then turn around and beat the European champions then it would be something extremely special back home for all the people in Nigeria, and for the squad and what they’ve tried to do,” Waldrum said.
“It could be transformational in a lot of different ways.”
After the relative disappointments of the Haiti and Denmark victories, when England were run close and failed to assert themselves, the result feels of greater significance than the performance.
“I think maybe people might appreciate those 1-0 results a little bit more now,” Millie Bright said.
“We knew this tournament was going to be the hardest by a country mile because the level is so high in the game. I know we’ve talked about the big nations, but every nation is a big nation in this tournament and I stand by is anyone’s sort of taken.”
Nigeria have spent the last three weeks being misjudged. England will not make that mistake but know they have a target on their back at this most unpredictable of World Cups.
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