Nigeria Women vs Canada Women – Match preview, Live stream, kick-off time, prediction, team news, lineups
Nigeria Women and Canada Women kick off their 2023 Women’s World Cup campaigns on Friday 21 July as they face off at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium.
Nigerians have been in nine World Cup finals, while Canada have appeared at every tournament since missing the inaugural edition in 1991.
Group B: Nigeria vs Canada (03:30, Melbourne) – BBC Two
Match Preview
Nigeria World Cup campaign
Nigeria reached the semi-final stage of the 2022 Africa Cup of Nations to book their spot in Australia and New Zealand.
Nigeria are the lowest-ranked side in group B (Australia, Canada and Ireland) – sitting in 40th place in the Fifa rankings.
It means Nigeria (known as the Super Falcons) will have to pull out all the stops if they have any hopes of making it to the knockout stages. However, New Zealand stunned the world on Thursday when they beat Norway 1-0. And Australia’s opening game saw them win 1-0 against Ireland – but Ireland held them off for much of the game.
Randy Waldrum’s Super Falcons are heading into their first match with confidence – after beating Costa Rica, Haiti and New Zealand.
Nigeria’s last meeting with Canada was in 2022 and saw the game end 2-2 – a similar score would be regarded as a success.
Canada World Cup campaign
Meanwhile, Canada head into the World Cup as the reigning Olympic champions after winning gold in Tokyo two years ago.
They haven’t seen the same level of World Cup success, with their best performance taking place in 2003.
They were unable to make it out of the group stage in the next two World Cup finals, before falling at the quarter-final stage in their home World Cup in 2015.
In the 2019 tournament, they finished second in the group behind the Netherlands to advance to the last-16 where they were narrowly beaten by Sweden, who went on to finish in third.
With Canada hoping to kick off the tournament with a win over Nigeria, they may be able to take confidence from the fact that they have won their last two World Cup openers by a 1-0 scoreline.
Team News
Paris FC’s Chiamaka Nnadozie is expected to start in goal for Nigeria, and she could be shielded by the central defensive pairing of Oluwatosin Demehin and Onome Ebi.
Toni Payne, Halimatu Ayinde and Onyi Echegini are expected to feature in the centre of Nigeria’s midfield for the opening game.
After scoring 27 competitive goals for Barcelona last season, Asisat Oshoala will be hoping to carry her club form into the World Cup.
As for Canada, Kadiesha Buchanan is expected to partner Vanessa Gilles in central defence, while Ashley Lawrence and Allysha Chapman are set to operate as the two full-backs.
Canada boss Bev Priestman is hopeful that Chelsea midfielder Jessie Fleming will be available for Friday’s opener following concerns over her fitness.
Christine Sinclair is the all-time leading scorer in men’s or women’s international football with 190 goals, and the veteran striker will be hoping to add to her tally against Nigeria.
Nigeria Women possible starting lineup:
Nnadozie; Alozie, Demehin, Ebi, Imuran; Okoronkwo, Payne, Ayinde, Echegini, Ajibad; Oshoala
Canada Women possible starting lineup:
Sheridan; Lawrence, Buchanan, Gilles, Chapman; Grosso, Schmidt, Fleming; Leon, Huitema, Sinclair
WTX Sports predicts Nigeria 1-2 Canada
It’s a tough game, despite the poor run of matches we think Canada might just nick it in the end.
