Black Queens head coach Kim Lars Björkegren has praised his team’s performance, insisting they were the superior side in their 1-0 friendly victory over Senegal on Saturday.
The Swedish tactician guided Ghana to a narrow win in Dakar as part of their preparations for the 2024 TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations set to take place in Morocco this July.
Evelyn Badu’s well-timed header in the 24th minute proved to be the match-winner, but the Black Queens had to dig deep after Anasthesia Achiaa was sent off in the 63rd minute, forcing them to play the final stages with ten players.
Reflecting on the game, Björkegren said:
In professional football, winning is always important. We knew coming into this it would be a tough away game, especially against a physical Senegal side. I thought we started well, scored a beautiful goal exactly the way we wanted — a perfect cross and a great header from Evelyn coming from the No.10 role.
Towards the end of the first half, we got drawn into a more physical style of play, which suited Senegal. At halftime, we emphasized playing faster, keeping the ball on the ground, but after the early red card in the second half, the game changed completely. He added.
Ghana will face Senegal again on Wednesday in a reverse fixture, also in Dakar, as part of their nine-day training camp.