Ghana U20 women's coach: South Africa was our biggest threat
17th February 2026
Ghana U20 Women's national team coach Charles Sampson insists that now their biggest goal will be to qualify for the U20 World Cup after beating Basetsana 1-0 at Mbombela.
The Black Princesses played a 2-2 draw against the South Africans in Ghana before beating them away in Mpumalanga.
Now that the West African team are preparing for the next round, Sampson says South Africa was their most challenging team so far in the World Cup Qualifiers.
"Our goal is to go to the World Cup, South Africa poses a challenge for us. So, we are extremely happy that we could surpass them. Now we would have time to prepare and to look at which one is our next opponent," Sampson said.
The former Ghana international joined the team as a head coach in 2024 after serving as an assistant for the senior women's national team.
He says even though they faced obstacles like injuries in the camp, he's excited to go through to the next round.
"The mood is unbelievable, you can see a lot of emotions even to myself just because the challenges we had in this particular camp was huge. To come out of that, to come and win here and to qualify for the next round is what we wanted and so we are so so happy," Sampson added.
Ghana will now face Uganda in the next round, while Cameroon will take on Tanzania, with Côte d’Ivoire playing Benin and Nigeria facing Southern African side, Malawi.
