WAFU Cup: “We lost to a good team”- Salisu

Black Stars with home support thrashed bitterest rivals Nigeria by 4-1 in the 2017 WAFU Cup finals on Sunday 24th September at the Cape Coast Stadium.

Ghana,exhibiting a master-class of soccer displaying got their first goal through a Stephen Sarfo’s 18 yard-box sensational strike inside the 43rd minute mark just before the strokes of first-half being his third goal in the tournament to break the virginity of the game,haven’t found the back of the net 13 times for his outfits in the ongoing Ghana Premier League.

Vincent Atinga found Ghana’s second goal on the day via Spot-kick in the 59th minute after Patrick Razak was impeded just under a minute coming-in to replace Gideon Waja.

The Stars separating the ‘boys from the men’ got their third on the day with Hearts of Oaks talisman Patrick Razak dazzling through the Nigerian defenders to be impeded for the second time which Stephen Sarfo making no mistake converted to made it his forth in the tournament to win both the Golden boot award and Nasco man-of-the-match award.

Cobbina later on made it four(4) for Ghana after a sloppy defensive blunder in the 93rd minute with Nigeria’s Rabiu Ali getting the teams consolation from a wonderfully executed free-kick in dying embers of the game.

Salisu Yusif,coach Nigeria after the game said “We lost to a good team who took their chances”he told the media.

Yusif Added “The competition really turned out great and will contribute massively to the experience of my players us we set to participate in CHAN”he noted.

The two West African soccer giants before their crunchy final berth had met 49 times with Ghana having 19wins,conceding 44goals as to Nigeria’s 11 wins and 72 goals conceded,with 19 of the games ending by way of draw.

Nigeria clinching to its third WAFU finals,earlier-on had defeated Senegal by 2-0 in 2010 to win their first and only title,while their second showdown turned a 3-2 loss in the hands of Togo in 2011,haven’t in the Group ‘A’ last round of matches defeated Ghana by 2-0.

Striker Okpotu and Eneji Moses were the goal scorers.

The Black Stars being strong contenders to beat throughout the competition after its heavily criticized 1-0 opening game victory against ‘The Scorpions’ of Gambia,entered the competition as defending champions,beating Senegal by 3-1 in the 2013 WAFU edition in ‘Saint-Louis'(Senegal),couldn’t afford to disappoint at their own back yard as hosts.