The national female under 17 team, the Black Maidens made it two wins out of two at the ongoing FIFA under 17 world cup in Uruguay after they defeated Finland 3-1 in Montevideo on Friday night.
This is their second game after they humiliated the host nation 5-0 on the opening day of the tournament. Milot Pokuaa opened the scoring after 6minutes when she reacted quickest to curl home a rebound from a poor clearance by a Finnish defender. Pokuaa then turned provider as she beautifully crossed for Mukarama Abdulai to head home Ghana’s second of the match and her fourth of the tournament after 13minutes.
The rest of the first half was then left to incessant attacks by each of the two teams which yielded no further goals. Therefore the first half ended 2-0 in Ghana’s favour.
Finland dominated the exchanges in the second half albeit nothing to show by way of goals as the maidens defended very well. However, the constant pressure paid off for the Finnish as they pulled a goal back in the 75th minute even though to be fair captain Mukarama Abulai should have scored another hat-trick but she failed to utilize all the clear chances that came her way.
Grace Animah however ensured the points were safe in the bag for Ghana when she beautifully converted a free kick in the closing stages of the match even though the Finnish goal keeper should have done better.
The win takes Ghana to 6points out of six and a place in the next round where they will face teams such as Mexico, Japan, Brazil and South Africa in group B depending on the final standings from both groups after the last round of matches on Tuesday.
Ghana captain Mukarama Abdulai also won the player of the match award for a second successive time after picking the accolade in the first match as well for her hat-trick.
With New Zealand also defeating the host nation 2-1 on Friday night, it puts them level on points with Ghana albeit Ghana with a superior goal aggregate. The final group matches on Tuesday will determine who finishes first and second respectively. It also means the host Uruguay and Finland are both out of contention for qualification to the next round.
