FIFA U20 WWC: Ghana coach Ben Fukuo blames penalties for defeat to Japan

Published on: 15 August 2022

Black Princesses coach, Ben Fokuo, believes the penalties conceded let his team down in the defeat to champions Japan. 

Ghana suffered their second loss at the FIFA U20 Women's World Cup after a 2-0 defeat to Japan. Two penalties in the space of ten minutes from Maika Hamano condemned Ghana to the brink of exit.

"It is unfortunate we lost our second group game which means for the 6th attempt, we won’t make it past the group stage," coach Fokuo said in a post-match interview.

"Our first half performance was better than the second half. We started the second half on a better note until we conceded the penalty which I think pushed the girls down a little bit.

He continued: "We conceded another penalty and it is unfortunate to concede through penalty but I think we played better than our first game.

"We wanted to go at least to the quarter finals but that didn’t happen. It is sad not to make it this time again so we will go back and work hard so that in the next edition, we will try our best to make it from the group stage."

The Black Princesses have to beat the Netherlands by a huge scoreline and hope Japan defeat USA to progress to the next stage of the competition.

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