By Harry Awurumibe, Head, ABUJA BUREAU
Nigeria’s potential opponents in the Second Round of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics women’s football African qualifiers, Algeria and Chad Republic are scheduled to clash this week in the first leg of the preliminary competition with the return leg slated to hold not later than April 9. No fewer than eighteen countries are taking part in the first round play- off with the Chad’s national women’s football team having already departed N’djamena for Algiers where they will take on the 2007 All Africa Games Bronze Medalists on Thursday. The winner of this tie will battle with the reigning African champions, Super Falcons of Nigeria in the Second Round matches which will hold between August 26 and September 3. The winner of the Nigeria/Algeria/Chad ties will qualify for the 3rd Round billed for September 30 and October 8. There are two more rounds the teams will cross before qualifying to represent Africa at the Olympics in Tokyo. Meanwhile, six other countries drawn bye to the Second Round are Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, Kenya, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Here are the 1st Round fixtures :Today:Angola ?? vs ?? Zambia ( Zambia qualified already because Angola withdrew)
?Côte d’Ivoire ?? vs ?? Sierra Leone (Côte d’Ivoire through the second round due to FIFA’s ban over Sierra Leone)
Wednesday April 3:
Ethiopia ?? vs ?? UgandaGabon ?? vs ?? Congo Brazzaville Mali ?? vs ?? Morocco
Thursday April 4
Malawi ?? vs ?? MozambiqueAlgeria ?? vs ?? Chad
Friday April 5
Botswana ?? vs ?? NamibiaTanzania ?? vs ?? D.R. Congo
Cameroon, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana and Kenya are already qualified for the second round.
