2024 WAFCON: Plumptre Confident Ahead of Zambia Clash

Nigerian women’s senior national team defender, Ashleigh Plumptre has assured that the Super Falcons are ready a for battle against the Copper Queens of Zambia, at the ongoing 2024 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in Casablanca, Morocco.

Plumptre confirmed this on Thursday during a pre match press conference ahead of the knockout stage on Friday July 18, 2025 at the Larbi Zaouli Stadium.

Speaking on the spirit of the team and how preparations are going for the nine time African women championship, the 27 year old said the team is feeling good heading into the quarter finals.

   “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. We’ve been on the training field the last two days and we’re training again today. Everybody is in really good spirits.”

The centre-back acknowledged the attacking threat posed by the Copper Queens but insisted that the Super Falcons are ready to face and neutralise all Zambia’s attacking threats and not just the two star forwards in Barbara Banda and Racheal Kundananji.

“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.” 

Also the Al-Ittihad Ladies of Saudi Arabia defender praised her side for being one of the best defending team in the 2024 WAFCON tournament.

   “As much as we have such good attacking threat both starting and the subs coming in as well, we do take pride holistically as a team to defend well, and protect our goal well.

I think you can tell in our games that we all defend as one and we try to attack as one.” 

Zambia have scored the second-highest number of goals in the competition (6), with their dynamic attacking duo, Barbara Banda and Racheal Kundananji, consistently troubling opposing defenders with their pace, trickery, and power.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Super Falcons have maintained a 100% clean sheet record in the group stage across their three matches.