Black Queens trounce Mali

Accra , Jan 29, GNA -The female national team, the Black Queens trounced their opponents from Mali 5-0 in the second leg qualifiers of the Africa Women Championship (AWC) at the Accra Sports Stadium on Sunday.

The huge score line granted the Queens an 8-0 aggregate to advanced to the next stage of the qualifiers after beating the Malians 3-0 in the first leg played in the Malian capital Bamako two weeks ago.


The Queens would now face Cameroon in the last stage of the qualifiers in May and the winner of the two leg encounter would secure a ticket to the AWC to be hosted by Equatorial Guinea in November this year.


Portia Boakye opened the scores in the 33rd minute, after a one-on-one combination with Leticia Zipki with the former delivering a grounder past keeper Karentuo Fatoumata.


Zipki who was a constant threat to the Malian defence aided the team to score the second goal when she ran deep into their defence with a perfect cross that gave Safia Abdul Rahman little work to do as she tapped in coolly, a minute before the close of the first half.


The Queens returned in the second half, a more determined side, dominating every department of the game.

It was obvious they were going to increase the tally and did so in the 54th minute again through a simple tap after zipki had set her up again to increase her personal goal to two on the day.


The Queens toned down the tempo of the game, after the third goal and adopted a counter attack approach and this nearly granted the Malians at least a goal, but central defender Janet Egyir scoped the ball out before it crossed the goal line in the 62nd minute.


A minute later a swift counter attack from the Queens with Zikpi as the tormentor- in-chief, set up Boakye to score the fourth goal in the 69th minute, whilst Skipper Florence Okoe completed the demolishing exercise five minutes later.


The Queens could have recorded more goals after but seemed satisfied after and squandered the rest.