Football Ferns round out build up to World Cup

The Football Ferns will complete their overseas buildup for the World Cup against Ire
Photo: PHOTOSPORT

The Football Ferns will play Iceland and Nigeria next month in Turkey as part of their build up to the women’s World Cup in New Zealand and Australia in July.

The team will play Iceland on Saturday April 8th and Nigeria four days later.

New Zealand are ranked 24th in the world, Iceland are 16th and Nigeria 45th.

The confirmation of Nigeria means that the Ferns will have played a side from every FIFA confederation outside of Oceania in preparation for the tournament.

The games will be the last last overseas fixtures the team will play before the tournament, with the extended squad assembling in New Zealand from late May to begin a two month pre-camp and warm-up matches before the tournament.

“These are two good sides and a great test for us going into the tournament,” said coach Jitka Klimková.

“We played Iceland just over a year ago so this game presents a good opportunity to see how we have been progressing.

“We were also keen to face an African side so that we have challenged ourselves against every other confederation, and Nigeria are the perfect opponent,” she said.

“As a team we were disappointed with the results against Portugal and Argentina so I know everyone is keen to get back on the pitch to show what we can do.”

New Zealand lost 5-0 and 1-0 to Portugal in February and also lost 2-0 and 1-0 to Argentina last month too.

-RNZ