Three African national sides, including the champions, are expected to participate in this year’s invitational tournament
Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea and Zambia’s women’s national teams will feature in the 2021 Turkish Women’s Cup next month in Antalya, Goal can confirm.
The three African teams, including Olympic-bound Copper Queens will be part of the eight nations to vie for glory in the fifth edition of the invitational tournament to be held from February 15-24.
In 2020, Ghana and Kenya competed for the first time at the competition also known as the Alanya Gold City Cup, with the Black Queens finishing third behind Hungary and winners Chile.
Besides the three African sides, other potential participating countries are Ukraine, Serbia, India, Bulgaria, Uzbekistan, barring late withdrawals and postponement due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
While the 10-day tournament will serve as a pre-Olympic test for Bruce Mwape’s side, the Super Falcons and the Nzalang Nacional will be gearing up for 2022 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations.
The African trio are also appearing for the first time and will aim to become the first African nation to win the tournament after Poland in 2017, France B twice [2018 and 2019] and recently Chile.
Goal understands Nigeria, Zambia and Equatorial Guinea along with Uzbekistan are zoned in the same group for this year’s event.
The development means the competition will set up the African queens against two of the group stage foes – Zambia and Equatorial Guinea at the 2018 Africa Women’s Cup of Nations in Ghana.
The Copper Queens and Nzalang Nacional will be hoping to avenge 4-0 and 6-0 defeats respectively at the hands of the Super Falcons.
The Super Falcons will launch their campaign against the Copper Queens, while Nzalang Nacional will face off with Uzbekistan in their respective opening matches at Gold City Sports Complex.
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