WWC: Falcons won’t be intimidated by England, says Waldrum

Randy Waldrum, head coach of Nigeria’s Super Falcons, says the team will not be intimidated by England in their upcoming second-round match at the 2023 Women’s World Cup.

Waldrum spoke in a chat with Victor Modo, a photojournalist, on Friday in Australia.

The Falcons qualified for the World Cup round of 16 after finishing second in group B.

The Nigerians drew Canada in their first game and defeated Australia, the co-hosts, in their second match before holding the Republic of Ireland to a goalless draw to progress out of the group with five points.

England are European champions. They finished top of Group D. The Lionesses won all their games, including the 6-1 thrashing of China in the final group match.

Speaking ahead of the tough clash, Waldrum said although the Falcons respect the Lionesses, the Nigerians are convinced they can get a favourable result against England.

He said Nigeria impressed against Canada and Australia, which he described as “two of the best teams in the world”.

Waldrum added that the England “challenge” will be tackled head-on.

“Now we made it out of the group stage, we do not want our work to be done,” the Falcons’ coach said.

“We want to continue, and I think the match against England is certainly going to be another challenge. I think the players [Super Falcons] are up to it.

“We are playing the European champions now. They are champions for a reason – they have quite a good team, we know, and we respect that.

“But I think the players understand that we have played the Olympic gold medallists, played Australia, two top 10 teams in the world, and I do not think they will be intimidated by the moment at all, and now, it is time to go out and perform.”

Waldrum said the Falcons could match the Lionesses for “speed, athleticism, and strength”.

“England are extremely talented. The whole group are extremely talented players. So we have to come up with a game plan and see how we can handle them,” he said.

“I think the one big difference between us and China is that the Chinese do not have our speed and athleticism, and strength. They were organised, but the physicality of England was too much for them.

“I hope that would be the levelling piece against England because we have much more strength and speed than China did. We will put a game plan in place to utilise those strengths against England.”

Nigeria will take on England in the second-round contest on Monday.