Nigeria Women v Canada Women

Nigeria Women vs Canada Women Preview

The other game in Group B concerns Nigeria and Canada who will face off at the Melbourne Rectangular Stadium on Friday lunchtime with both sides sensing an opportunity to make a winning start to their respective campaigns and in turn keep pace with the group favourites, Australia.

Although Nigeria had endured a tough run of results which saw the African side slump to seven defeats on the trot in all competitions previously, they have at least turned things around in recent times as they've prepared for this upcoming World Cup with wins against Costa Rica, Haiti and New Zealand, the latter victory being a 3-0 win in Antalya.

However, the previous seven defeats on the trot is a bit of a concern for national coach, Randy Waldrum, and his side may be happy to settle for a point here in order to stay in the race for a possible top two finish in Group B and take their chances against Republic of Ireland.

Previous World Cup campaigns have seen Nigeria struggle for wins as they have collected just two victories from their previous 17 games at this level although one of these wins was a 1-0 win against Canada back in July 2011.

Canada secured their place in these World Cup finals hosted by Australia and New Zealand by virtue of finishing runners-up in the 2022 CONCACAF Women's Championship but results in recent times may just be asking a few questions around Canada's credentials to join Australia into the knockout rounds.

Four defeats in their last five matches overall have produced losses against Brazil, USA, Japan and France but they did manage to at least avenge the defeat to Brazil as they swiftly made amends by beating them 2-0 in the SheBelieves Cup in Nashville.

Results on the World Cup stage have been fairly inconsistent as well, with Canada winning four, drawing two and losing three of their previous nine games in this tournament although Bev Priestman's side have held the upper hand in recent exchanges against Nigeria, winning two of the previous three encounters.

Nigeria W v Canada W Verdict

Both Nigeria have had to deal with ongoing off-field issues in the shape of dressing room infighting and disputes over pay and conditions respectively but both sides will be keen to put these to one side in this Group B opening game on Friday.

Previous exchanges have resulted in Canada being unbeaten in the last three meetings with Nigeria and having also recorded two wins within these last three encounters, Canada possibly hold the edge going into this important fixture.

Therefore, our main bet will be Canada win & Under 3.5 goals @ 2.25

Other side bets worth considering:

Canada win & Both Teams To Score No @ 2.20

Correct score: Canada W 2-0 @ 7.00