Nigeria's Falconets ready for Cameroon duel

LAGOS, April 17 (Xinhua) -- First Vice Chairman of Nigeria Football Association, Amanze Uchegbulam said that national Under-23 female team, the Falconets, are well prepared for this weekend's FIFA Under-23 Women World Cup second leg qualifier against their Cameroonian counterparts in Yaound, capital of the Central African state.

"We are taking the battle to the Cameroonians and I am quite sure that the team will emerge from the battle unscathed in Yaound," said the Imo State Football Association chairman.

"We sent an advanced party to spy on the Cameroonian team and Iam sure the coaches already have enough information that will enable them nail their hosts this weekend," he said.

The Falconets have a mountainous assignment in Yaound, where they are expected to build on the slim 1-0 victory recorded against the boastful Paul Biya's country a fortnight ago in Abuja.

Cameroon is one of a few Nigeria's rivals in continental female football and will be hoping to finally floor the Falconets after living in their shadows since the invention of female football in Africa.

Falconets departed the shores of Nigeria on Wednesday for Yaounde, but they encountered a emergency landing in southeast Nigeria's city Port Harcourt, local media reported Thursday.

Eighteen members of the national Under-20 female football team and 121 other passengers aboard a Cameroun-bound aircraft escaped death on Wednesday as the pilot made an emergency landing at the Port Harcourt International Airport, Rivers State.