Nigeria vs. Spain: Super Falcons undone by tactical ineptitude

A display to be ashamed of by a mile…

A sad fate for the Super Falcons of Nigeria as they crash out of the 2024 Paris Olympics in a deserved 1-0 defeat to Spain Women’s national team.

The Super Falcons have themselves to blame against the European side as they failed to capitalize on their chances to put up a front against the World Champions. Nigeria started the game playing quite the boring game, failing to complete simple passes and being in haste to fling long balls from their defence for a chance on a counter attack.

However, the tactical master class of Spain was on ground to hold back whatever Nigeria threw at their backline. The Spanish goalie, Cata Coll thanks to the Super Falcons’ nervy play, had very little to do in goal even when the West African side threatened an attack.

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With 77 percent possession against Nigeria, Spain exhibited total dominance over the African women who surrendered their freewill to watch La Roja play through them with consecutive passes.

Though the Super Falcons had creative players in the vein of Toni Payne and Rasheedat Ajibade to provide creativity in midfield and on the flanks, the defensive rigidity of the Nigeria women stunted anything they attempted against Spain. Despite standing the side with the most to lose, the Super Falcons put up a performance that was too conservative to yield anything positive from the game.

Contrary to Spain’s 7 shots on goal, Nigeria could only make 3 shots throughout the game with just 1 on target and two going off target.

The display by the Super Falcons against the Spanish women is a far cry from the side that appeared at the last world cup, with the Falcons so far unable to register a goal in the tournament.

La Roja showed tactical superiority against their African counterpart, however it is Nigeria who have themselves to blame for being tactically inept to put Spain under any reasonable pressure throughout the tie. Thanks to an Alexia Putellas masterclass, the World Champions emerged as deserved winners.