Two-goal heroine Uchenna Kanu in actionin the Burundi match
The original 12-team field has narrowed to eight as the Women Africa Cup of Nations gets to the quarter final stage.
Nigeria will face old foes, Cameroon with the ticket for the World Cup also at stake as all four semi finalists will go the Women’s World Cup.
The match comes up on Wednesday. Interestingly, the fixture has recorded the highest head-to head encounter more than matches in the history of Nigeria’s ninth title win in eleventh participation of the now biennial women football on the continent.
On record, the neighbouring countries have met 12 times with Nigeria won 10 times drew one and lost one time to the emerging power house in African football.
Nigeria got the better on the Cameroonian in the maiden edition of the tournament in 1991 when Super Falcons won 2-0 and 4-0 over two legs to book a slot in the FIFA Women Football tournament in China.
Both sides the not meet again until 1998 when Nigeria hosted the tournament in Ijebu-Ode and Kaduna and Falcons recorded 6-0 win against Cameroon at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium where the two semi-final matches were played.
Nigeria won 3-0 again in the group phase in South Africa in 2000 and four years later in the Rainbow nation both side played out 2-2 draw in the group phase and qualify into the knockout stage.
But the Central African nation were not lucky in 2006 as Nigeria secured 5-0 win in the semi-final clash with Perpetual Nkwocha scored a hat-trick and two years later, both teams played 1-1 score-line in third placed match but Nigeria won 4-3 on penalties.
Nigeria secured 5-1 win against Cameroon in 2010 in semi-final clash and Nkwocha recorded another hat-trick in South Africa and two years later in Equatorial Guinea, both teams met twice with Nigeria won the group phase match 2-1 but lost the third placed match to Cameroon by a lone goal scored by Gaelle Enganamoiut.
But 2014 in Namibia, Nigeria bounced back to winning way with a 2-0 victory Just Falcons won by a lone goal in 2016 edition hosted by Cameroon with only goal scored by Desire Oparanozie.
At the last edition in Ghana, both teams played out a goalless semi final clash but Nigeria won 4-2 on penalties and went ahead to win the cup against South Africa in the final match.
The quarter final fixtures
Wednesday 13th
Zambia Vs Senegal 6 PM
Morocco Vs Botswana- 9PM
Thursday 14th
Cameroon Vs Nigeria -6 PM
South Africa Vs Tunisia -9PM
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