WAFU Zone B U20 Championship: Ghana share spoils with rivals Nigeria

Ghana U20 open their WAFU Zone B African Championship campaign with a stalemate against Nigeria U20 in the opening Group A fixture of the tournament.

Spoils were shared between Ghana and Nigeria in the opening game of the WAFU Zone B U20 Championship where hosts, Ghana held rivals, Nigeria to a 1-1 stalemate.

A 24th minute goal from skipper Aziz Musibau kept Ghana up in the game as the hosts dominated a major part of the game, pouncing on their opponent's vulnerability but lacked the ability to be clinical upfront.

In the second half, the Flying Eagles of Nigeria came in with other plans as they dominated a major part of the game and taking the ball to their Ghanaian opponents. Nigeria pulled parity in the dying embers of the game as they drew level through an Abdullahi Muhammed goal on the 84th minute.

After the game, the head coach of the Ghana U20 side, Desmond Ofei had a lot of positives from the game and saw it as a learning curve for the hosts as they look to improve on the results in their next game.

"The boys did really well, especially being the first game of a tournament opener against a very competitive side, being a team that have qualified to the world cup, even though we dominated possession and most part of the first half which resulted in us getting the goal, but we also need to give it up for Nigeria as they showed determination and character in coming back into the game."

"It was a game of maturity and we lacked that and we will make sure to psyche the boys up to prepare adequately for the final group game against Benin which is a must-win for us and we will go all out for that."

"The draw comes to us as a motivation and a lesson as well as we look to improve on the points dropped to better our chances of sealing a spot in the next stage of the competition and we are looking forward to improving our goal scoring abilities to be more clinical upfront."

Captain of the side and goal scorer of Ghana's only goal of the game, Aziz Musibau also talked about the game and how they tend to improve on it going forward:

"We dominated most part of the first half which resulted in us grabbing the opener but unfortunately for us, we had to finish the game with the draw as our opponents became more aggressive in the dying minutes of the game but we will go back to the drawing board and rectify our mistakes for the upcoming game against Benin."

The Man of the Match winner also added that the team will do their best to make it to the next stage of the tournament.

The Black Satellites will lock horns with Benin in must win final group fixture on Wednesday, July 16 2025.