Six titles, 16 goals - Nigeria's amazing record at the African Women's Championship

With the Nigeria senior female national team seeking a record seventh African crown when they face the Cameroonian female national team at the Sam Nujoma Stadium in Windhoek, Namibia on Saturday. 

The Super Falcons have never lost in the final of the African Women's Championship and have only ever conceded two goals in six matches while scoring 16 times. They have twice defeated les lionnes in the finals and would hope to make it third time lucky in Windhoek. 

Goal takes a look at previous finals the Super Falcons have appeared in.

NIGERIA 2-0 GHANA (Abeokuta) Oct 31, 1998

This was the first final the Super Falcons participated in. Going into the grand finale, Nigeria finished as group winners after trashing Morocco 8-0 in their first game of the competition before making mince meat of DR Congo 6-0 and handing Egypt a 6-0 beating.

In the semi final, Cameroon got humiliated 6-0 while goals from Nkiru Okosieme and Stella Mbachu handed the Falcons the trophy for the very first time at the expense of the Black Queens.

Goals for: 28
Goals Against: 0

NIGERIA 2-0 SOUTH AFRICA (Boksburg) Nov 25, 2000

This was the only final that was never completed in the history of the competition as it was stopped with 28 minutes left to play.

It had promised to be a dream finale, as hosts Banyana Banyana looked forward to upstage the defending champions, ranked fifth in the world after the 1999 Women's World Cup in the US. But the game had a rare taste of violence when the match was abandoned with 28 minutes to play.
The trouble started, in a packed Vosloorus Stadium, with South African supporters hurling stones and bottles onto the pitch after Nigeria's second goal scored by Stella Mbachu. The crowd protested, wrongly) that the goal should have been disallowed because an injured Nigerian player had been lying in an offside position. Olaitan Yusuf had opened the scoring in the 31st minute.

Goals for: 19
Goals against: 2

NIGERIA 2-0 CAMEROON (Warri) Dec 20, 2002

Nigeria faced Ghana for the second time in the history of the championship. To reach the final, the Super Falcons began their campaign on a flying start by trouncing Ethiopia 3-0 in the first game. In the second game, Nigeria slipped to her first defeat in the competition’s history after losing 1-0 to Ghana. However, the Falcons bounced back in their third game to bash Mali 5-1.

Getting to the semi-finals, South Africa fell victim to the attacking dexterity of the hosts to lose 5-0. In the final, goals form Perpetua Nkwocha and Effiomwan Ekpo’s strike gave Nigeria the trophy despite the heroics of Memunatu Sulaimon who was in goal for the Black Queens.

Goals for: 15
Goals against: 2

NIGERIA 5-0 CAMEROON (Johannesburg) Oct 3, 2004

Nigeria made a mess of Cameroon in the final of the fourth edition hosted by South Africa. Les lionnes had come into the game basking in the euphoria of their 1-0 defeat of Ghana in the semi-final courtesy of Francoise Bella’s extra time winner. But they got spanked by the Falcons who sent Ethiopia parking in their last four.

Four goals from Perpetua Nkwocha plus a late strike from Vera Okolo confirmed Nigeria’s dominance on the continent for the umpteenth time.

Goals for: 18
Goals against: 2

NIGERIA 1-0 GHANA (Warri) Nov 11, 2006

Nigeria faced Ghana for the second time in the final of the tournament at the Warri Township Stadium on  November 11, 2006. Both sides topped their respective groups in the preliminaries and also sent packing their opponents in the semi-final.

In the final, the most competitive the Falcons had played in, Perpetua Nkwocha’s 13th minute strike handed Nigeria the trophy at the expense of the Black Queens who got punished for missing begging chances that came their way.

Goals for: 18
Goals against: 2

NIGERIA 4-2 EQUATORIAL GUINEA (Daveyton) Nov 14, 2010

After missing out of a place in the final of the 2008 edition staged in Equatorial Guinea, the Super Falcons made amends by reaching the final of the tournament staged in South Africa.

Goals from Perpetua Nkwocha, Desire Oparanozie and own goals from Ghislaine Nke and Carolina Periera silenced the Equatorial Guinea ladies who came to the tournament as defending champions in a keenly contested encounter. It was the first time that the Super Falcons had conceded a goal, and they shipped in two in this very tough encounter with then defending champs.

Goals for: 18
Goals against: 4