Nigeria will take on great rivals Ghana in their opening match of the African Women’s Championship in November. The pair have been drawn together in Group B of the tournament, which is hosted by Equatorial Guinea. South Africa and Tunisia are the other two teams in the group. Group A features the hosts, plus Cameroon, Mali, and Congo-Brazzaville. Nigeria’s Super Falcons have won every edition of the championship so far, but they failed to make it to the knock-out stages of the recent Olympic tournament in Beijing.

Veteran star Perpetua Nkwocha told the BBC that their group would be a difficult one. “I think its a little bit tough, because South Africa and Ghana are in the group with us. This is the first time we are in this kind of group, but there’s no problem for Nigeria, we are not afraid of any African teams.” She admitted that she knew little about Tunisia. “It’ll be good for us not to play them in the first game, so that we know how they are playing and can study them well.

“Nigeria’s group will play in Bata whilst group A will take place in the capital, Malabo.The tournament takes place between 15 and 29 November.