WAFCON: Plumptre declares Nigeria ready to face Zambia

Nigeria women’s national team defender Ashleigh Plumptre has declared their readiness to tackle Zambia as a team and not individuals in the quarterfinals of the CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) at the Larbi Zaouli Stadium in Morocco on Friday.

Both nations will head into the knockout stage unbeaten, having each collected seven points from two wins and a draw in their respective groups.

“Preparations are going well. Compared to the group stage, we have a little bit more time between games so that has put us in a good position,” the centre-back told a press conference on Thursday as quoted by Complete Sports.

”We’ve been on the training field the last two days and we’re training again today. Everybody is in really good spirits. The preparation is going well and overall the atmosphere in the camp is calm but exciting at the same time.”

With Zambia boosting the attacking duo of Barbara Banda, and Rachel Kundananji, who have scored three goals apiece at WAFCON, the Al-Ittihad Ladies of Saudi Arabia player, said: “Obviously we know that Zambia have really good attacking threats and we respect that, and we’re prepared for that.

“But we don’t prepare for two players, we prepare for Zambia as a whole team. We know that if you get consumed with two players, they can have threats that come from different aspects, which is, I think, the same for us as well.”

Zambia will go into the last eight match with 20 players, with Grace Chanda returning from suspension, but Xiomara Mapepa has been excused from the squad on medical grounds.