The Ghana U-20 female national team, the Black Princesses will host their Ugandan counterparts for the second leg encounter of the ongoing 2022 African U-20 Women’s World Cup Qualifying (WWCQ) tournament third round, and head coach Ben Fokuo is confident his side are well prepared to sail through on Saturday.
The Black Princesses are on a mission to seal qualification to the 2022 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup finals in Costa Rica, but will have to clear two more hurdles en route to the finals, one whom are the Uganda U-20 female team. Coach Ben Fokuo’s Princesses traveled to Entebbe, Uganda in January to face their counterparts in the first leg of the third round qualifiers. Ghana triumphed with a 2-1 victory away from home, thanks to goals from Salamatu Abdulai and Grace Animah.
The second leg comes off on Saturday, February 5 at the Cape Coast sports stadium in the Central Region of Ghana, and coach Ben Fokuo has been speaking to ghanasportspage.com on preparations, morale in camp, injury updates as well as support from the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and the Government of the republic.
“We are still in camp since our return [from Uganda], preparations are ongoing. What didn’t go well during our play in the first leg we have taken the girls through for corrections. We preparing to go to Cape Coast, so we have not relented at all since our return”, Fokuo stated.
The Princesses have been training hard ahead of the second leg, but Fokuo has warned against complacency, saying, their opponents are a very good side and the having won against them away from home does not mean they are a cheap side. He expressed satisfaction over the commitment level of the girls in camp as they remain focused as though they never won the first leg.
“This time in the world there is no country in Africa to be underrated in football. It’s not like before when you can just walk over a team with ease, it’s not like that, they are very competitive just that Ghana is a country with much God given talent and that’s why the lads could win the match there [in Uganda]. Winning there doesn’t really mean everything was right although the girls played very well there to win. One or two things didn’t go well so we have taken the players through and still on preparation with the mindset of winning on Saturday just as we won in Uganda”, he continued.
“They are very determined and they’ve made them understand that we haven’t qualified yet, so they must play beyond how they played to win in Uganda, so if you look at their commitment at training it’s very high. Thy are very determined so we can qualify on Saturday. By grace everyone is fit, everyone trained well so there is no injury in camp here”, coach Fokuo stated. He praised the GFA for their immense support for the Princess to ensure they secure the ticket to Costa Rica.
This is the last but one stage of the qualifying phase. If the Black Princesses qualify ahead of Uganda come Saturday, they will then zoom into the the last qualifying stage (fourth Round) to meet the winner between Tanzania and Ethiopia. Tanzania hosted Ethiopia in the first leg of the third round and won by 1-0, and will travel to Ethiopia for the reverse fixture on over the coming weekend.
The Black Princesses have qualified for the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup on five (5) occasions – 2010, 2012, 2014, 2016, 2018, but have failed to progress from the group stages in any of the five appearances.
