Chikwelu, Oshoala & Ebi eye Super Falcons' semi-final victory over Cameroon

Rita Chikwelu, Onome Ebi and Asisat Oshoala have assured that Nigeria will secure nothing short of victory against Cameroon in their Africa Women Cup of Nations semi-final tie on Tuesday.

The defending champions are on the brink of reaching their third successive final of the competition. They need a win over the Indomitable Lionesses whom they defeated at the last two finals.

And the team's captain Chikwelu has revealed that they are well motivated to subdue Joseph Brain's side for the tenth time in their history at the Accra Sports Stadium.

"Against Cameroon, everybody knows it is not going to be an easy game," Chikwelu told media.

"We anticipated Cameroon or Ghana and now we have Cameroon in the semi-finals. We will give all we have to see the team qualify to the final.

"You can see from our third and second game, the girls are happy, everybody is happy for what NFF have done. Before our second game, we got all we asked them and they gave us the motivation we needed from them and we are happy and we hope they continue to do them proud."

Defender Ebi, who reflected on their opening loss to South Africa, assured that her teammates will leave nothing to chance in ensuring the country emerge victorious against their central African rivals. 

“We are in great spirit for the semi-final match with the Cameroonians,” she said.

“We made our mistake against South Africa, and I think it was a great wake-up call for us. That defeat told us something - that we should never under-rate any team and that we must be ready to give our 100 percent for every match. 

“We will give everything we have to get past the Lionesses and qualify for the World Cup, and then we can battle the final with whichever team we meet there.”

While Oshoala, who scored a hat-trick to guarantee the team's spot in the knockout stages, vows that the Cameroonians will not stop her side from claiming a place in the final of the competition.

“We will work as a team on the day,” Oshoala said. “Together, we will achieve more. We all know that and we will follow the coaches instruction and get to the final. Cameroon cannot stop us.”

Victory in the semi-final will hand Nigeria an automatic qualification ticket to the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup finals in France.