France spanking wake-up call – Falcons coach

Super Falcons coach Thomas Dennerby has said the 8-0 loss to France was a wake-up call for his team and he also assured the African champions will not underrate Gambia when they clash in an AFCON qualifier in June.

Last week in Le Mans, France, the highly-experienced Swede did not get off to a great start in his first game in charge of the women’s national team.

However, he said the trouncing has shown everybody has to now get cracking.

“It was very disappointing, a really bad result no doubt about that, but there was a reason for this – the team have not been together since November 2016,” Dennerby explained after he watched a league game between Confluence Queens and Bayelsa Queens in Lokoja today

“We tried to get the team together earlier. But we were allowed only two days in France and one of those two days we were to prepare the team.

“But we couldn’t because there was a strike, they cancelled the flights, so players had to fly to Turkey and the trains in France were on strike.

“The players arrived 7 in morning and sat in the bus till 3 in afternoon (to get to Le Mans).

“The preparation was not good enough against France, who are one of the best teams in the world.

“They gave us a real wake-up call and we now know we have to work hard. Nothing comes by chance, you have to work for it.”

The Falcons will now face Gambia in an AFCON eliminator in June and the coach said he hopes to get enough time to prepare the team for this must-win games.

“We can’t underrate any team because we are Nigeria, that will be truly dangerous,” he said.

“We need to win the game.

“We should have three, four weeks to bring the players together.

“I also want to see Gambia.”