Nigeria’s Women Premier League champions, Edo Queens, last Friday evening finished as the fourth best team in the 2024 CAF Women Champions League after losing the third place match in the tournament 4-3 to FC Masar in a shootout in Casablanca, Morocco.
The third place match had ended in a goalless stalemate after ninety minutes of regulation period. The Benin girls however returned with honours as the team pocketed N600m for reaching the semifinals in addition to individual awards to some of the players who distinguished themselves.
The Nigeria’s flagbearers at the continental showpiece had managed to sustain the tempo, absorbing all that the Egyptian champions had thrown at them throughout the 90 minutes of regulation period in a goalless situation before the shootout ensued which did not favour them.
Edo Queens have since Monday, November 25, returned to the country and their home state, Edo, with about N600m (six hundred million naira) which they earned for their sparkling efforts.
On the return of the team, their Head Coach, Moses Aduku, highlighted the positives of the tournament and the benefits derived which he said are enough experience and lessons for his team and himself in their next outing.
“We have learnt our lessons. We started very well but went down without scoring goals at the critical stages of the tournament. This is our first time. And I can say that we did not fail our people. Next time we are going to be better,” Adukwu submitted.
The Edo Queens began the tournament in Morocco with a 3-0 victory over Commercial Bank of Ethiopia(CBE) with Emem Essien, Folashade Ijamilusi and Goodness Osigwe scoring for them. They settled for a goalless draw in their second match with Masar FC of Egypt before the final group game in which they demystified the defending champions, Mamelodi Sundowns Girls of South Africa 2-1.
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