Women Challenge Cup Semi-finals Hold ’Morrow

The semi-finals of the 2011 Women Challenge Cup will now hold on Tuesday at the FIFA Goal Project’s astro-turf pitch of the Abuja National Stadium, an official has said.

Head of the Women Football Unit of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Mr Danlami Alanana, said the semi-finals would involve epic matches.

“The competition has now reached a tough and very interesting stage, and I can assure all football fans that the two semi-final matches will be memorable games,” he said.

The first semi-final match will see defending champions Rivers Angels of Port Harcourt facing Delta Queens of Asaba while the second game will have Pelican Stars of Calabar meeting Sunshine Queens of Akure at 3.30 p.m.

Agency reports indicate that all four clubs are coming fresh from their participation in the Women Football League’s Super Six which ended last Saturday at the same venue.

Delta Queens, winners of the five-day contest, had stunned favourites Rivers Angels with a 1-0 win on the final day to upstage them and set the stage for tomorrow’s meeting.

“Tuesday is going to be interesting, in vew of what is now on ground, but we are up to it and I am confident we will win again,” Daniel Evumena, the Delta Queens’ Technical Adviser, had said on Saturday.

Super Falcons’ star Stella Mbachu has however promised the Delta Queens a tough time, saying the situation was going to be different.

“No two games are the same, and this time around, Delta Queens will not find it easy. “In fact, there is no way for them, because we are not ready to surrender our title and they have made us more determined with our loss to them on Saturday,” she said.

Pelican Stars had beaten Sunshine Queens 1-0 on Matchday Three of the Super Six on Wednesday, and the Akure side would now be looking to extract their pound of flesh.

The Challenge Cup competition’s third-place and final matches have been billed for the same venue on Wednesday, Sept. 28.

The final matches of the Women Challenge Cup competition were earlier scheduled to begin on Sunday, September 25 and later Monday, Sept. 26, before being moved again.

Alanana said the postponements were as a result of the tight schedule of the Nigerian women football calendar.

“Now, we have a tight situation, and we want the season to end this week for the Super Falcons’ to resume their camping ahead of their final 2012 Olympic qualifier.

“We had wanted the Challenge Cup finals to immediately follow the Super Six, but being that the teams in both competitions are almost the same, that was not possible.

“But now, the clubs have been allowed to rest from the rigours of the Super Six on Sunday and Monday, and then return to the pitch for the Challenge Cup matches on Tuesday,” he said.

The Super Six competition, earlier scheduled to end on Friday, September 23, had ended a day later as it did not begin on September 18 as earlier scheduled.