Nigeria head coach, Thomas Dennerby believes his battle-hardened players will carry a precious advantage over their rivals as they prepare for a do-or-die Africa Women’s Cup of Nations (AWCON) semi-final showdown with Cameroon on Tuesday.
The defending champions ended up at second place behind South Africa in Group B.
Dennerby is delighted that his team were given a thorough test by South Africa during the group phase, saying it has honed his squad’s competitive instincts as they enter the decisive knockout rounds.
“The loss to South Africa really made us learn in the hard way. It can only benefit you if you’ve had real games already in the group phase,” Dennerby said to Sports247.ng.
“At the group phase we had Zambia and Equatorial Guinea and things looked very easy,” he added, referring to one-sided results in the first round of the 2018 tournament.
“Going into this tournament, we needed to be on our toes from the first second and we were.
“Now it’s about knockout games. It’s do-or-die. There’s no calculation involved anymore, there’s no fixing afterwards. You have to win the games now.”
