Ghana U-17 women'scoach Mas-Ud Didi Dramani

By Ameenu Shardow

Coach Mas-Ud Dramani has revealed Ghana’s target at the U-17 Women’s World Cup was to reach the quarter finals.

The Black Maidens exceeded expectations by going all the way to win bronze in the tournament hosted in Azerbaijan.

Despite a stuttering start to their campaign with an opening group loss to Germany, Ghana went ahead to win three successive games to achieve an historic semi final berth.

The Black Maidens’ fairy tale story however ended against France with a 2-0 defeat but Ghana recovered again to avenge their opening loss to Germany in the third-place playoff to win bronze.

The team was accorded an overwhelming reception upon their return to Ghana on Monday night where coach Dramani made the startling revelation.

“In football you have to set realistic targets and our target was to get to the quarter finals,” he said.

“But once we got that far we wanted to go much further.

“Unfortunately we had a bad card which changes our tactical discipline because we needed to chase the game.

“We were mentally very strong and very determined to win something in the game against Germany and thankfully we were able to achieve this.”

The team is expected to form the nucleus of the U-20 side, the Black Princesses – though some will gain promotion to the senior team.