Super Falcons head coach, Justine Madugu, has apologised to Nigerians following the team’s failure to qualify for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, admitting that defensive errors and poor finishing contributed to their 2-1 defeat to South Africa.
Madugu spoke in a post-match interview published by News Central TV on Friday, August 14, 2026, a day after the Falcons suffered the defeat in the Confederation of African Football play-off at the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.
“I have to apologise to Nigerians over our inability to make it to the World Cup. We are very sorry. It was not our intention.
“We came, did the best that we could, but our best was not good enough.
“And we’re very sorry for that, and we take full responsibility for everything that happened. There can always be a next time. I’m sorry,” Madugu said.
Nigeria had missed the automatic qualification route after losing 1-0 to Cameroon in the WAFCON quarter-finals but were handed another opportunity to reach the World Cup through the continental play-off.
However, South Africa capitalised on Nigeria’s defensive mistakes to secure victory.
Thembi Kgatlana opened the scoring in the 56th minute before Refiloe Jane doubled South Africa’s advantage in the 77th minute.
Christy Ucheibe reduced the deficit from the penalty spot in added time after a VAR review awarded Nigeria a penalty and resulted in Jane being sent off.
The Falcons, however, were unable to find an equaliser before the final whistle.
Madugu said Nigeria created enough opportunities to win the match but failed to convert them.
“We had chances. Still, the conversion was another problem. And, uh, we made some little errors at the back. They capitalised on that, and, uh, they got the goals that they also got,” he said.
The coach attributed the defensive lapses to individual mistakes and poor decision-making.
“It is something that we really regret and feel very sorry about because it was more of individual errors in terms of decision-making that accounted for what actually happened,” he said.
Madugu also acknowledged that the team had struggled to be clinical in front of goal.
“Of course, we will say we have a goal-scoring problem because we have not been clinical in front of goal. We have not been clinical. We create several chances, but we are very wasteful with the opportunities that always come our way.
“If we were very clinical in front of goal—I mean, we would have been scoring a lot of goals,” he added.
The coach said Nigeria had enough opportunities in the first half to put the game beyond South Africa but failed to take advantage of them.
“So, we have to blame ourselves for it. We have to blame ourselves because we did not take the chances that kept coming our way. This was a game we would have finished since the first half based on the opportunities that we had, but we couldn’t utilise them,” Madugu said.
He added that South Africa were more efficient with their chances.
“In the second half, we still got chances. How many chances did South Africa get? But because they were more clinical, they converted the chances that came their way. Today, they are the ones that won the match.”
The defeat means Nigeria will miss the FIFA Women’s World Cup for the first time since the tournament began in 1991.
South Africa, meanwhile, will advance to the intercontinental play-off tournament for another opportunity to qualify for the 2027 Women’s World Cup.
