WAFCON 2024: Malete promises Super Falcons upset if Botswana stays calm

Botswana head coach Alex Malete has warned his side not to be desperate when they take on the Super Falcons of Nigeria in their second fixture on Thursday at the 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in Casablanca, Morocco.

While the Mares kicked off their Group B with a 1-0 defeat against Algeria, the Super Falcons began their bid for another WAFCON title with a dominant 3-0 win over Tunisia at Stade Larbi Zaouli in Casablanca on Sunday.

The Super Falcons are favourites heading into the clash at Stade Larbi Zaouli, but Malete has remained confident the Mares can cause an upset if they stay calm and not desperate, and to be able to “express ourselves in terms of things that we do well.”

“We have to be calm and not desperate when we face Nigeria. We have to be able to express ourselves in terms of things that we do well. Look at Nigeria as well and see what they do well and see what they struggle with and do our best to use that to our advantage,” said Malete as quoted by SABC Sports.

“But what I’m happy about is the positivity within the camp, the spirit within the camp, the unity within the camp. It’s the environment for me that will ensure that we proceed to the next round.

“We have a very positive group, they’ve been very impressive since we started preparations and we are looking forward to our next match and we’ll do everything to make sure that we qualify to the next round.”

On losing to Algeria, Malete said: “Defeat to Algeria, I have to say we paid a heavy price for not starting the game well. Defensively and more especially in other moments we should have imposed ourselves, we didn’t.

“Defensively we have too many gaps in between the blocks and because of those gaps we allowed Algeria to isolate our fullbacks, so their wingers 6 and 11, they gave them width and they had time and space to receive and challenge our fullbacks who didn’t have cover.

“And even cut inside for combination play because of the gaps we had in between our blocks but we were not proactive enough to deal with those situations and we only adjusted half time and in the second half we were a better team.”

Nigeria are currently leading the group with three points, while Botswana are third without a single point.