By Daily Sports Nigeria on August 15, 2026

Super Falcons captain Rasheedat Ajibade and forward Rinsola Babajide have vowed that Nigeria will bounce back after the team’s below-par outing at the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco cost them a place at the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup in Brazil, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

Nigeria’s World Cup hopes were ended on Thursday following a 2-1 defeat to South Africa in the Confederation of African Football play-off in Casablanca.

The Super Falcons had already missed out on an automatic World Cup ticket after a 1-0 quarter-final defeat to Cameroon, a result that also ended their run of reaching at least the semi-finals at every previous WAFCON and handed the 10-time African champions their worst-ever finish in the competition.

Against South Africa, Thembi Kgatlana broke the deadlock in the 56th minute before Refiloe Jane doubled the advantage in the 77th minute. Nigeria were handed a lifeline in stoppage time after a VAR review awarded them a penalty and saw Jane sent off, and Christy Ucheibe converted from the spot, but the Super Falcons could not find an equaliser as Banyana Banyana held on for victory.

The result means Nigeria will miss the World Cup for the first time since the inaugural edition in 1991, having featured at every tournament since. South Africa, meanwhile, advance to the intercontinental play-off tournament in November and December, where three teams will secure the remaining African World Cup slots.

Reacting after the match, Ajibade said the disappointment must serve as motivation for Nigerian women’s football to raise its standards.

“There are a lot of lessons for us to learn from this. This is a wake-up call for us to rise again and not rest on our laurels,” Ajibade said.

The Paris Saint-Germain midfielder added that other African teams are closing the gap on Nigeria and called on her teammates to demand more of themselves individually and collectively going forward.

“We should learn not to be lax because the competition is fierce now. We must realise we are not invincible; we just need to prepare more, get better, and demand more of ourselves individually and collectively,” she said.

Babajide, who featured for Nigeria throughout the tournament, also took to social media to react to the outcome, describing the experience as heartbreaking but insisting that the Super Falcons would recover.

“Heartbroken to say the least. It really hurts to miss out on a World Cup spot, but grateful for the opportunity to represent my country at yet another WAFCON. Unfortunately, it did not go the way we would have liked it to go,” Babajide wrote in her Friday post.

“We might be down right now, but we will definitely bounce back, the only way we know how to, the Naija way. Time to reset, reflect and work ahead towards the Olympic qualifiers,” she added.

Nigeria, who arrived in Morocco as defending champions, began their campaign with a shock 3-2 defeat to WAFCON debutants Malawi before recovering to beat Zambia 1-0 and Egypt 3-0 to reach the quarter-finals through a dramatic set of permutations.

Source Punch Ng

Posted August 15, 2026

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