Black Princesses finally depart for World Cup

The Black Princesses finally left the shores of Ghana on Monday night for the 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup in France after the constant change of departure date.

The Black Princesses are scheduled to open their campaign against hosts France on Sunday in the opening game at Stade de la Rabine, Vannes.

They will later take on the Netherlands on Wednesday, August 8 at the Stade de la Rabine and later face off with New Zealand on Sunday, August 12 at the Stade Guy Piriou, Concarneau.

This will be the team’s fourth appearance at the tournament.

After failing to progress out of the group stages in all their previous editions, the Princesses are targeting a knock-out stage qualification.

Coach Yussif Basigi told TV3: “Even though we have not prepared adequately for the tournament, we are still looking at crossing the group stage, before we think of any other thing.

“Because if we talk much about going to the quarter or semi-finals, we are being overambitious.”

Despite not going with star girl Priscilla Adubea and other players due to injuries, Sandra Owusu Ansah and Ernestina Abambila hope for glory.

“We are ready to win the cup. [It] is not easy but we will try our best to win it,” Sandra Owusu Ansah told TV3 Sports.

“All we have to do is to win the games for [our injured teammates]. We have to qualify from the group stage so that they will be happy. [Our] main focus is to qualify from the group stage after that then we will make our way forward [and with] that we are going to take the trophy to Ghana,” Ernestina Abambila said.

The 2018 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup will be contested by 16 teams from six confederations between August 5-24.

Government has already indicated that no supporters will be airlifted to France to support the team but Ghanaians in France will be mobilised to do that.