The Super Falcons of Nigeria are the current best-ranked national women's team out of Africa.
They hold the 32nd position in the World and first in Africa, followed by the defending WAFCON champions Banyana Banyana of South Africa in second place, and 45th in the World.
Nigeria will trade tackles with Ethiopia in the return leg second round of the Olympic qualifiers in Abuja on Tuesday, 31st October.
The match will kick off at 3 pm at the MKO Abiola Stadium, Abuja and Nigerians have been urged to come out in mass to support the team.
@thenff President Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau has urged Nigerians to come out to support the Super Falcons when they take on Ethiopia in their 2024 Olympics Qualifier at the Abuja National stadium on Tuesday ,30th October 2023. pic.twitter.com/6fSGFDfJJS
— Faith. 🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳🇬🇳 (@trendyfaith) October 27, 2023
Super Falcons have missed out on the Olympic Football event in the past three editions to the chagrin of many Nigerians.
But the team have looked quite better following a good showing in the Women's FIFA World Cup where Nigeria got to the last 16 and only missed out on the last eight on penalty shootout.
Since then, the Falcons have not been in action until recently when they took on the Walya Ladies of Ethiopia at the Abebe Bikila Stadium in Addis Ababa last week.
With a place in the third round up for grabs, the expectations of Nigerians is for the team to go through.
Super Falcons record in Africa Women's Olympic Football qualifiers
Nigeria women's football team have appeared in the Olympic Football Tournament on three separate occasions, the most by any African country.
However, Nigeria Super Falcons have not appeared in any of the last Olympic events. This time though, the team are out to prove their number one ranking on the continent is duly deserved as they battle to pick one of the available slots.
🚨🚨Atletico Madrid midfielder Rasheedat Ajibade has vowed that the Super Falcons will give their all to overcome Ethiopia in the second leg of their Olympic Games qualifier.#soccernet #rasheedatajibade #soarsuperfalcons
🔗 https://t.co/lRY7cXdjc2 pic.twitter.com/gwfx27N8MU
— Soccernet.ng (@soccernet_ng) October 30, 2023
Participating teams in CAF Women's 2024 Olympic Qualifiers and Format
The 2024 CAF Women's Olympic Football Tournament Qualifiers will be the sixth edition of the CAF Women's Olympic qualies, the quadrennial international football competition organized by the Confederation of African Football.
This is to determine which women's national teams from Africa qualify for the Olympic football tournament which is to be held in Paris, France.
Participating teams
53 countries in Africa were eligible to enter the qualifying rounds with only Zimbabwe suspended.
But in an interesting turn of events, only 25 countries submitted entries showing desire to participate and grab the two slots available for Africa.
Of the 25 countries, 18 took part in the first round with seven countries waved by as a result of how they finished in the last WAFCON tournament in 2022.
Only five African countries have participated in the Women's Olympic Football Tournament since it began in Atlanta, 1996: Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Format
Four rounds of home-and-away matches will determine the two CAF representatives to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in France.
If the cumulative scores are even after the second leg ends in regulation time, then 30 minutes of extra time will be played.
If the score is still level after extra time, then a penalty shootout will be used to determine the winner.
The matches will be played in the FIFA match windows in July and October 2023 and in February and April 2024
At the time of writing, the first round has been concluded, and the second round is now in its return-leg phase and from there the third round.
Let's take a look at the predictions we have for the Super Falcons as they chase a place in the Paris Summer Olympics.
Super Falcons – 3 predictions for Africa Women's Paris 2024 Olympic qualifiers
Nigeria to reach the third round
Nigeria Super Falcons will welcome Ethiopia Lucy to MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja on Tuesday afternoon in the second leg of their round 2 qualifying series.
Nigeria earned a deserved 1-1 draw away at Abebe Bikila Stadium last midweek courtesy of a second half leveler from Rasheedat Ajibade to set up a return affair which promises to be a thrilling one.
With all due respect to Firew Hailegebriel and his team, the Falcons are no match for them.
As clear favourites, we maintain that the Nigerian women's team will defeat the Walya Ladies and advance to the third round.
Nigeria to play in the fourth round
The third round is scheduled to begin from 19-28th February 2024 with eight teams pitted into four fixtures in a home and away game decider.
The Super Falcons should get the job done at home over the Ethiopian ladies, although the game promises to be tough.
The winner on aggregate between Ethiopia and Nigeria will then face the winner of the Cameroon/Uganda fixture for a place in the fourth round (final round).
On that note, we predict Nigeria to play one of Cameroon or Uganda and come out tops over two legs to advance to the last round.
Nigerian Super Falcons to pick fourth Olympic ticket
The Nigerian women's team have failed to feature in the last three editions of the World Olympic games which have been a disappointing run.
Nonetheless, the ladies are determined to end the streak by picking the ticket this time around.
Nigeria has previously appeared in three editions of the Women's Olympic Football Games, the highest by any African country.
At the moment, the team is blessed by great players who proved themselves in the last Women's World Cup, and are determined to make headlines in next year's Olympic event.
Going by recent performances, we fancy the team to go all the way to the last round and pick one of two available tickets irrespective of who they play.
The Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be held between 26 July – 11 August in France with two representatives coming in from Africa.
This article was most recently revised and updated 5 hours ago
