GFA Technical Director explains two reasons for Black Starlets elimination from WAFU Cup

Black Starlets were handed a 3-1 defeat against Ivory Coast in the group stage of the WAFU U-17 Nations Cup.

Ghana had drawn against Nigeria in their opening game of the tournament, so the defeat saw them out of the competition.

The Technical Director of the GFA Ghana failed to qualify for the knockout stage of the tourney due to lack of quality strikers in the team and poor officiating.

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“I’m not happy with the U17 performance; we have goal scoring problems. We don’t have this kind of strikers who are real strikers but in all the referee decided this match today. Sorry to say this,” GFA Technical Director Bernhard Lippert on Black Starlets Performance in the ongoing WAFU ZONE B tournament in Togo.

“This was really obvious and there is a lot of things to do. This team didn’t present itself as a team but we still have four or five prospects in the team,” he added.

“We have to discuss the performance of the team at the Executive Committee level,” Bernhard Lippert further stated.

This is the second time the Black Starlets have failed to qualify for the CAF U17 tournament after missing out on the 2019 edition.

Below is the match report of the game

The Starlets of Ghana on Tuesday crashed out of the ongoing WAFU U-17 Cup of Nations after a painful 3-1 loss to Cote D’Ivoire at the stad de Kugue in Togo.

Ghana needed just a point to advance to the semi-finals of the competition but the performance was met by profligacy in front of goal and some controversial referee decisions

Togolese referee Vincentia Enyonam Amedome waved play on, on two occasions much t the dismay of the technical bench following glaring obstructions on captain Abdul Fatawu Issahaku and Samuel Boakye in the Ivorian penalty area.

The Ivorians opened the scoring in the 10th minute through Moses Junior Razak Fofana. He latched on to a loose ball in the Ghanaian defence to score the opener.

In the second half, Charles Likpa scored the second goal for the Ivorians but Ghana replied two minutes later through John Batigi.

Batigi connected from captain Fatawu’s cross with an easy tap in. The goal brought Ghana back into the game butm that was dealt a blow four minutes later after Cederick Emmanuel Don scored the third goal from the spot for Cote D'Ivoire.

The win sends Cote D’Ivoire through to the semi finals of the tournament with 6 points. Nigeria also qualifies with 1 point. While, Ghana bow out of the tournament with 1 point.