Born in Manises, Valencia, Nayadet Lopez Opazo came through the ranks of Spanish football, but was eligible to represent Chile through her mother. She started the naturalisation process with the hopes of representing the South American country at the FIFA Women’s World Cup France 2019™, but missed the deadline by just a matter of days.
Now nearly eight years later, Opazo, who currently plies her trade for Deportivo Alaves – newly promoted to Spain’s top flight – is fully focused on helping Chile in their quest to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2027™. With two goals to her name so far in the Nations League, Lopez’s Chile currently occupy fourth place. That position would normally see them safely through to the FIFA Women’s World Cup Qualifying Tournament, but they are level on points with second-placed Argentina, who would now qualify automatically.
The midfielder sat down with FIFA to discuss her journey and the three qualifying fixtures coming up in April.
Nayadet Lopez Opazo: The road to the World Cup has been closely fought. Aside from the loss in Peru, which was incredibly tough for us at such a high altitude, I think we’ve performed excellently in the other games, putting in some very solid displays.
Those performances have kept us near the top of the table and we’re heading into April’s triple-header full of momentum. It’s no doubt been a tough ride, with some difficult matches, but securing important points along the way has given us the confidence to kick on.
It was a tough match. In the opening 45 minutes, we were penned in our own half for large spells, but we tried to hit them on the break. We had a golden chance that went begging and could have turned the game in our favour. We kept our shape, defended solidly as a unit, and nicking a point after the way the game unfolded was important.
On paper, we knew this was a game where we had to take all three points. We broke the deadlock early in the match, which allowed us to settle into our rhythm and take the game by the scruff of the neck. Putting so many goals past them did wonders for our confidence. We were really happy because we knew we had to get the three points, and we got the job done.
We really struggled to find our feet in the first half, aside from my goal, which came against the run of play. It was a physically demanding game that really took its toll on us. Whether it was down to the altitude or the backing of their home crowd, they were the better side. Going into the break at 1-1 felt like a positive, but we weren’t at the races in the first few minutes of the second half, struggling not to concede and unable to get our noses in front, and things quickly went south. We couldn’t turn the game on its head. It was a hard-fought match and we came up short, so we knew our next game was a must-win.
It was a tough match. Paraguay got the better of us at the Copa America, and we were under no illusions that it’d be a tricky encounter. Yanara Aedo put us in front in the first half, and after that we were miserly at the back, stayed organised, and felt fairly comfortable.
You can’t help but keep an eye on the points. Realistically, we might manage to pick up seven or nine points, but that’s being very optimistic. There’s no doubting Colombia have some top-quality players, and they’re firing on all cylinders, as we saw at the Copa America.
We’re confident we’ve got what it takes to go toe-to-toe for every single point up for grabs. We’re playing Argentina on home soil, so we need to come away with all three points, though we know it won’t be an easy task. But we’ve managed to get the better of them in previous years. In Colombia, we’ll be aiming to win or at least nick a point, and then we’ll turn our attention to Uruguay. We know it’ll be a tricky tie away from home, but we’ll stick to our own game and not get too bogged down in individual battles.
We’d be over the moon, but we’re fully aware of the weight and responsibility on our shoulders to make it happen. We’ve already played at a World Cup, we know what it entails, and it’s helped us grow. Then we had the Olympic Games. Our aim is to qualify directly, or failing that, through the play-offs, which is how we did it in 2019.
It’s something I’ve yet to experience. Playing at a World Cup as a player has to be one of the biggest highlights of your career, right up there with the Olympic Games. Our aim is to qualify and help Chile go as far as possible. It’d be a dream come true to play at the World Cup.
