Princesses win 2-0
Ghana’s Under-20 female football team, Black Princesses, yesterday sealed their qualification to the next round of the 2016 Women’s World Cup qualifiers with a resounding 2-0 victory over their Equatorial Guinean counterparts in Kumasi.
Advertisement
Two second half goals by Lily Niber-Lawrence and Veronica Appiah were enough to send the Princesses through on a 3-0 aggregate, having won the first leg by a lone goal.
But for the agility of the Equatorial Guinean goalie, Lucia Andeme Micha Mbengono, who pulled off some magnificent saves throughout the match, the Princesses would have run riot.
The Equatorial Guineans were the first to come closest to scoring as early as the second minute through Francisca Angue Ondo Asangono, who lobbed the ball past onrushing Ghanaian goalie, Victoria Antwi Agyei, who was forced to stretch to tip the ball over the bar for a corner kick. And even though the Ghanaians dominated the first half, it ended goalless.
However, minutes after tresumption, a solo effort by hardworking Wasila Diwura-Soale, who rounded up the left back of the Guinean defence, crossed the ball for Lily Niber-Lawrence to head in the first goal.
But Niber-Lawrence failed to score a brace soon after when she headed the ball over the empty net after the spectators player of the day, Naomi Anima’s cross beat the entire defence, including the goalkeeper.
Veronica Appiah, who came on for Sandra Owusu Ansah, who had been a torn in the flesh of the Equato-Guineans, made it two for the Black Princesses in the dying minutes of the game.
It was all joy when referee Vivian Koute from Benin blew the final whistle, with Naomi, who was the toast of the spectators, being carried shoulder high amidst jubilation.
