The Black Maidens of Ghana stormed into the finals of the WAFU B U-17 Girls’ Cup with an emphatic 5-0 victory over Ivory Coast on Thursday, December 19, 2024, at the Ghanaman Soccer Centre of Excellence.
Christina Ashiaku opened the scoring in the 15th minute, setting the tone for a dominant performance. She continued her stellar form, completing a hat trick before halftime, leaving the Maidens with a commanding 3-0 lead.
An early second-half substitution brought Zipporah onto the pitch to replace Alimatu Mbamba. Zipporah wasted no time making her mark, scoring Ghana’s fourth goal and her first in the tournament. The fifth goal came from Seidatu Wahab, who unfortunately had to be stretchered off following a collision with an opponent. She was replaced by Rahinatu Mumuni.
At the post-match press conference, Ghana’s assistant coach, Basru Deen Sumani, shared the strategies behind the victory.
“After watching Ivory Coast play against Nigeria, we worked on our aerial balls and defence, and that’s what worked for us,” he said. “In situations like this, load management is very important, so we managed our load, nursed the various injuries we had in camp, and corrected our mistakes from previous matches. What we worked on at the training grounds really worked for our success today.”
Victoria Banful, one of the players, spoke about the challenges of returning to competitive matches after a two-year hiatus. “It’s very difficult, but we tried our possible best to do it for ourselves, the coaches, and the team. With this mentality, we are ever ready for any team we meet in the finals,” Banful said.
Latifa Musah was named the Most Valuable Player of the match.
The team now awaits their opponents, Nigeria and Benin, in the highly anticipated final, with confidence running high.
