By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
Nigeria’s Super Falcons returned to the Olympic Games after a 16-year absence after a hard fought barren draw with South Africa’s Banyana Banyana Tuesday night at Loftus Versfeld Stadium in Pretoria ensured that the West Africans qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics Women’s Football Tournament on 1-0 goal aggregate courtesy of a lone goal home victory over their rivals in Abuja last Friday.
Nigeria last featured in the women’s football event at the Olympics in Beijing in 2008. After qualifying for Sydney 2000 and Athens 2004 respectively, the Super Falcons have missed three straight Olympics from London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020.
It would have been a sad commentary for the nine-time African champions to miss the 4th Olympics in a row if they failed to beat South Africa to the Paris Olympics ticket this time around.
