When the Super Falcons defend their Women’s Africa Cup of Nations title in Morocco next month, Asisat Oshoala says they must not be complacent.
The West Africans have won the last three Women’s Nations Cups and have a total of nine victories.
However, Barcelona’s Oshoala believes that the quality of other teams on the continent is rapidly improving.
“I feel really confident about our team [but] we also know that right now it’s more competitive,” the 27-year-old told the BBC World Service.
“The qualification was really tough. We had to go through Ghana and Ivory Coast to get to the tournament and now we see the best from each side in Africa.
“You have teams in Africa growing. We lost to South Africa in a friendly game and we couldn’t even beat some teams like Mali – we struggled to beat them.
“So it just shows that it’s not going to be easy to win. It used to be for us before.”
The tournament, which last took place in Ghana in 2018, has been expanded from eight to twelve teams and will take place from July 2 to 23.
Nigeria has been drawn with South Africa, the team they beat on penalties in the final four years ago, as well as Burundi and Botswana, both of whom are first-time qualifiers.
“It’s going to be amazing to have the the tournament back and also in a different format this time around,” added Oshoala, a four-time African Women’s Footballer of the Year.
“It will be pretty interesting and we’ll see how it goes. We need to step up our game and try to make sure that we retain the title.”