Super Falcons head coach, Randy Waldrum has expressed pride in the team following their progress so far at the ongoing FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The Super Falcons had to contend with co-hosts Australia, Olympic champions Canada and the Republic of Ireland, all of whom ranked significantly higher.

Nigeria’s preparation for the World Cup was embellished in controversies, even before the team travelled to Australia, and little was expected win a match at the competition.

However, the team was able to get results against the top level oppositions in the group; beating the co-hosts, and drawing the other two to maintain an unbeaten record in this tournament.

“Well obviously l think a lot of people didn’t believe we will get out of the group. It’s the group of death; it was the hardest group there, and l think that showed the class of our players, the character of our players, the competitiveness.”

“We had a very short period of time to get them ready, so l am extremely proud of them to make it out of the group.

“Now that we have made it out of the group, we don’t want our work to be done. We want to continue and l think the match against England is certainly going to be another challenge but l think the players are up to it. We are playing the European champions now.”

The 66 year-old American also maintained that the team are ready to take on the European champions with no fear.

“They are champions for a reason, they are quite a good team and we know that and we respect that. But, l think the players understand that we have played the Olympic gold Medalist (Canada), and we have played Australia; two top teams in the world. I don’t think they will be intimidated by them at all, now is just the time to go out and perform.”

Super Falcons will be looking to progress into the quarter-final of the competition when they play England on Monday in an early kickoff, at 8:30 AM Nigerian time.