'Opportunity to prove the friendly loss was a fluke' - Nigeria's Oparanozie relishes facing France

Desire Oparanozie is excited at the prospect of turning out for Nigeria against the hosts in the group stage at the 2019 Fifa Women's World Cup in France.

The Super Falcons are scheduled to face the Les Bleus in their last group stage match on June 17, 2019, in Rennes - a year after they were thrashed 8-0 in a friendly at the MMArena in Le Mans.

With the African queens expected to earn good results against Norway and South Korea, the Guingamp striker insists the meeting with France will avail them a chance to avenge their humiliation.

"It is a very tough group but I am excited about the upcoming World Cup, particularly, maybe because I play in France," Oparanozie told media.

"I am equally excited because I am playing on home soil for me and also because we are playing in France in our last group game.

"I believe the game will give us a room to redeem ourselves, having lost to them in April earlier this year. 

"It was a disgraceful loss to them, which happened because we were inactive for about 16 months before going into that game.

"France is a team that has been preparing for over a year prior to that game and they have been utilising every international window on the FIFA calendar. 

"When you play against such team, you don't stand a lot of chance against them. But I happy we are playing them in the group stage and that will give us an opportunity to prove that what happened during the friendly loss was a fluke."

Despite their uninspiring route to retaining the African diadem in Ghana, the 24-year-old, is confident her side can surpass their previous outing with adequate preparation for the Mundial. 

"With the support of the Nigeria Football Federation going to the World Cup in helping us get adequate preparation, I believe we can match them strength to strength and physic to physic on the world stage," she continued.

"I know it is the same with my colleagues because we want to exceed the World Cup records we have in the past, which is getting past the group stage, probably to the quarterfinal and semi-final.

"We have all it takes to make this happen and I believe we can achieve this at the next summer's World Cup."