Bayelsa Queens of Yenagoa captain, Blessing Ilivieda says she and her colleagues will have to quickly end their celebrations for winning the 2025 Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) Super-6 trophy, as they want to concentrate on how to win the continental title as well.
Sports247 reports that Ilivieda was beaming with sheer delight on Saturday evening at Remo Stars Stadium in Ikenne, Ogun State, seconds after her team emerged NWFL Super-6 winners for this year, but immediately stated that they are already thinking of clinching the CAF Women’s Champions League next season.
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She started by revealing the level of excitement she had and then reeled out the factors that made their conquest of the 2025 Super-6 possible.
Ilivieda declared amidst gasps of delight, “I’m short of words. I’m really short of words, and I’m so excited. It’s just God all the way, plus hard work of the girls. The dedication, efforts, fighting spirit, corrections from the coach, it’s just been superb.”
The jocular skipper also took her mind back to the very beginning and recalled how she had a conviction back then that her team would lift this year’s trophy, with a string belief that God has always been on their side.
She added, “From the beginning of the season up till now, I saw the handwriting on the wall. It’s because everything that God is involved in is always successful. Even when we were down, after Edo Queens beat us in the second to last game, I told my team, ‘There is still hope. There is hope, and we’re going to win.’ I knew we would win the league, but the only thing was that we should put in more effort in the last game.”
Ilivieda then turned her attention on the decisive game against Naija Ratels of FCT, which her side eventually mauled despite getting an initial scare from the play-off competition’s whipping team, and she admitted that Bayelsa Queens struggled to stamp their authority in the first half.
“Funny enough, for the last game, it was not that easy in the first half. But, for the second half, when my team came back inside, everybody was on. Everybody was on, and we kept the fire burning. At the end of it all, our every effort was crowned. That’s why I’m so excited, I’m so happy.”
She went on to speak about the next focus for the six-time champions from Yenagoa, with a view that they have to start planning for the continental assault, beginning with the West African Football Union (WAFU-B) zonal qualifiers, in which she declared their determination to shine like last year’s Super-6 winners, Edo Queens of Benin City.
Ilivieda projected, “We want to do it the way Edo Queens did last year, with their unbeaten form in the WAFU stage. This time too, Bayelsa is going to give Nigeria the CAF Champions League ticket. I’m very sure about that.”
With her mind fully set on giving Nigeria another feel of the women’s continental clubs’ title chase, Ilivieda reiterated her pledge to start preparation early, hence her charge that she and her colleagues must end their Super-6 celebrations and start focusing on how to clinch the CAF Women’s Champions League.
“For now, on my celebration, I owe God gratitude. It’s my promise to him that if I lift this trophy, I will create time for Him. At the same time, the celebration ends now because we have a bigger task ahead of us. A champion must not relax or overcelebrate because of the task ahead. But I will keep thanking God because it’s to God that I owe everything,” Ilivieda affirmed
