Barcelona Femeni of Spain attacker, Asisat Oshoala is still basking in the euphoria of her assist that helped her side snatch victory in the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarter-finals, but insists the focus should not be on her personal efforts and targets alone, megasportsarena.com reports.
Rather than continue dwelling on her amazing burst of form on the resumption of action across Europe, Oshoala is giving credit to her teammates and club officials, even as she admitted it was a thrill being the one that notched the pass that helped them to 1-0 victory over their Spanish rivals, Atletico Madrid.
The 25-year-old four-time African Women Footballer of The Year, who featured from the start before she was replaced with eight minutes remaining in the game, missed two good chances of scoring goals of her own, before setting up Kheira Hamraoui to score the lone goal in Friday’s first quarter-finals’ fixture.
The former FC Robo Queens of Lagos, Rivers Angels of Port Harcourt, Arsenal and Liverpool of England as well as Dalian Quanjian of China lass has now turned her focus on also excelling against Wolfsburg of Germany in the semi-final on Tuesday.
She admitted it will be tougher against the German club, which hammered Glasgow City of Scotland 9-1 in Friday’s other quarter-final; hence her verdict that it should not be a continuous celebration of her assist that matters, but how to ensure she keeps playing together with her teammates to ensure the squad gets to the next round.
Despite netting only once in four appearances for Barca during this year’s European elite women clubs’ contest, Oshoala, who has 26 goals in 26 outings across all competitions, stressed that she is fully focused on the collective desire of seeing the female Catalans win all their matches rather than putting pressure on herself to hit target.
The 26-year-old Super Falcons’ captain, who last played a competitive match in 1-0 win against Deportivo la Coruna in February, was handed a starting role for Friday’s game by her team’s coach, Lluis Cortes but failed to hit the net, recounted how she scored three goals in her side’s recent 9-1 aggregate win in two friendly matches against Montpellier of France.
She, however, attributed her struggles against Atletico and her side’s unconvincing win to a five-month hiatus and admitted she was relieved with last Friday’s quarter-final win in Bilbao that confirms Barcelona’s semi-final date with Wolfsburg, who thrashed Glasgow City 9-1 to advance.
Tuesday’s tie will see Barca and Wolfsburg meet for the third time in the elite competition, and the first since 2014, when the Spanish side suffered a 5-0 quarter-final aggregate defeat to the German giants, who aim to reach their fifth final appearance this year, but Oshoala has backed her side to ruin that dream and realise a back-to-back final qualification at Anoeta Stadium.
Oshoala told uefa.com: “This was our first game in a very long time so a lot of things could have been better. Coming from a couple of months without playing, trying to get our rhythm going, we don’t expect everything to be perfect but we can be better, for sure.
“Getting a goal at the end of the game was a very good one for us. That’s what big teams do. Just make sure you get the goal whichever way you can. You have to respect every side, they’re a very good team – one of the best in Europe.
“It was a tough game, but at the end of the day we were victorious and that’s the most important thing. It will give us a lot of confidence and a different mindset going into the next game. It’s still the same mindset, we want to go in and give our best all the time. We want to make sure we play good football and try to get through the next round.
“We have to enjoy the moment now and work harder for the next game. I think we’re one of the best teams in Europe. Each game we try to give our best. Winning games is something that comes from hard work from the team. As a team, we just hope to keep getting better.”
