Accra, Feb 15, GNA -- Ismaila Mabo, head coach of the Nigeria women soccer team, the Super Falcons has attributed the victory of his side against Ghana's Black Queens played at the Accra Sports Stadium on Saturday to luck.
Coach Mabo who aided his side to snatch victory at the jaws of the Ghanaians through penalty kicks said luck "smiled on us to ensure this victory" when the GNA Sports spoke to him after the match.
The coach side the game which ended in favour of the Falcons by 3-2 could have gone either way though he claimed his side exhibited tactical superiority as against their opponents.
The coach who said he was confident that the Falcons will come tops irrespective of the opposition they received, bluffed that "even a blind man will tell you that our tactics over shadowed that of the Queens" he told GNA Sports.
However, he admitted that the Queens played an improved game as compared to the team that held the Falcons to a one all drawn game in Ibadan, Nigeria a fortnight ago.
"The Queens played a very improved game as against their play in Nigeria and I am very impressed with their output" he praised. The coach who told the GNA in a pre match interview that the Queens will not last the strength of the team praised the non-stop cheering fans that thronged the stadium to support the team to victory.
Though he conceded that the atmosphere at the stadium was intimidating, he was convinced that it did very little to affect the play of the Falcons whom he described as been used to playing in front of such huge crowd.
He was convinced that the Falcons will grab the continent's sole ticket to play at the forthcoming Olympic Games slated for Athens, Greece having scale the Ghanaian hurdle.
" The most difficult hurdle for the Falcons was the match against Ghana and haven scale that nothing can stand between us and Athens" the confident Mado declared.
On his part, Coach Oko Aryee of the Queens expressed his disappointment over the result and attributed it to hard luck. Disappointed Aryee who could not find enough words to express himself told the GNA " I can't believe what happened but certainly luck did not favour us."
The Queens last Saturday blew a perfect chance of making their debut at the Olympic Games when they lost 3-2 to the Falcons in a penalty shot out having tied two all in the both the first and second encounters played in Nigeria and Ghana respectively.
The Queens who took an early lead in the shoot out after ace goalie, Mamunatu Sulemana had saved two of the Nigerian's kicks saw Florence Oke, Elizabeth Baidoo and skipper, Alberta Sackey, miss kicking respectively to chagrin of the packed to capacity stadium.
Hundreds of fans who throng and cheered the Queens throughout the game and chanted victory songs all day left the stadium in total disarray.
The Falcons will now meet the winner of the South Africa and Angola encounter to determine who represents Africa in Athens.
