Björkegren insists Ghana still alive in WAFCON despite Mali setback
- Dennis Kegengo
- 5 days ago
- 2 min read
Ghana women’s national team coach Kim Lars Björkegren is confident the Black Queens will still make it out of their group in the CAF Women's Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) despite a 1-1 draw against Mali in Friday's Group C contest.
A goal in each half from Alice Kusi and Aïssata Traoré meant both sides walked away with a point in a match that neither could afford to lose, but will feel they might have won. The draw hampered Ghana’s qualification chances as they remained rooted at the bottom of the pile with a single point from two matches.
Ghana had kicked off their campaign with a 2-0 defeat against South Africa and went into the fixture against Mali desperate to get victory to help keep alive their qualification hopes to the knockout stages. Despite the draw, Björkegren is not surrendering yet insisting they are still in the tournament.
“We did a good analysis of the game. We had chances to win it. On a normal day, we would win 9/10 times but here we are with a point. We are still in the tournament. We just need to win the last game [against Tanzania that also has one point following their 1-1 draw with defending champions South Africa],” said Björkegren as quoted by CAFOnline.
“We had 2.6 on expected goals as compared to their 0.6 chance of scoring. If we display the same performance, if we play like this, we are probably in the quarterfinals. I think I am happy with one point, there is no reason to panic at this point. We still have a chance to qualify to the quarterfinals.”
Following the draw against Mali, with Ghana’s winless streak at the WAFCON stretched to four games – two draws and two defeats. The Black Queens will face Tanzania in their final group game at Stade Municipal de Berkane on Monday.
