Black Queens head coach Kim Lars Björkegren believes his team deserved their 1-0 victory over Senegal in an international friendly played on Saturday in Dakar.
The win forms part of Ghana’s preparations for the upcoming 2024 TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON), scheduled for July in Morocco. Evelyn Badu’s well-taken header in the 24th minute proved to be the difference between the two sides, as Ghana overcame a second-half red card to secure a hard-earned result.
Reflecting on the performance, Coach Björkegren said: “Of course, this is professional football, you are always happy when you win. For us, there was the one or the most important thing to win the game.”
The Swedish tactician acknowledged the challenge of playing away in Dakar, especially against a physical Senegalese side, but praised his team’s strong start.
“We knew before the game is it was a tough game for us, tough away game. We knew that Senegal can be physical. I felt the start was pretty good. I would say the first, like 30 minutes, we also scored the goal, beautiful one, I think, and exactly how we want to play with the perfect cross. And Evelyn came from the number 10 position with a great header, something she we started the game pretty well,” he explained.
Despite the promising opening half-hour, Björkegren noted that the game’s rhythm shifted late in the first half as Senegal imposed their physical style.
“I felt in the end of the first half that we were coming in a little bit to the physical style with more stops, more like the Senegal way to play in this game. So, we actually talked about it in halftime that we needed to play football on the ground, play a little bit faster again, but we didn’t.”
Things got even more difficult for Ghana when Anasthesia Achiaa was shown a red card in the 63rd minute, forcing the visitors to defend their slim lead with ten players.
“So early on in the second half, we had the red card, and from that time, it’s a completely different game,” Björkegren admitted.
Despite being a player down, the Black Queens held on, showing grit and defensive discipline to close out the game.
Ghana are currently in Senegal for a nine-day training camp as part of their build-up to WAFCON. They will face the Teranga Lionesses again on Wednesday in a second friendly match, also scheduled to take place in Dakar.
