Nigeria’s Super Falcons Head Coach Thomas Dennerby says thematch officials almost ruined the hard work of his team after they awarded three second half penalties to Slovakia to help them comeback.
The Africans Champions ran into a 3-0 lead at the Antonis Papadopoulos Stadium at the on going Cyprus Cup against Slovakia, but the European almost got a point after they equalised within 25 minutes no thanks to the three penalties awarded to themby the officials with Lucia Harsanyova scoring two and missed the third, after Jana Vojtekova had earlier scored in the 67th minute to reduce the deficit.
However Falcons needed a late Anam Imo late winner to win the game 4-3, But Dennerby refuses to blame his team for almost throwing the game away, even as he criticized the match officials for some bad decisions that almost cost his side.
“In the second half, we conceded three penalties within 45 minutes which came in the last 25 minutes,”
“It was extremely strange! In my opinion, I feel that’s some bad decisions from the referee. I hope to see them again on video but from my position on the bench, I was absolutely not wrong because Josephine [Chukwunonye] jumped and headed the ball away but they called for a penalty.
“Probably an offside, I think because Chiamaka [Nnadozie] came out and she looked to be the first to reach the ball, but another penalty was awarded. The first half, we had it under full control scoring three goals and almost did early in the second half.
“We could have scored when Asisat [Oshoala] played into space and she was held down in the area for a penalty but Rita [Chikwelu] missed the chance to score our fourth.
“After that, a beautiful freekick that meets the bar which Jana [Vojtekova] scored from before all the dramas happened, with three penalties been given to them.
“We had a shot from open play and it fell to the path of Anam [Imo], who scored the fourth goal. We had several chances and we could have scored up to 10 goals.”
Nigeria take on Belgium in the next game at the ongoing Cyprus Cup.
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