By Esther Egbe
Head coach of Ghana’s women football national team, Mercy Tagoe-Quarcoo has vowed that Nigeria will never beat her country again as long as she remains coach of the Black Queens,National Daily learnt.
Tagoe-Quarcoo made this assertion after she led the Black Queens to beat the Super Falcons via penalties at the semi final stage of the ongoing WAFU cup in Abidjan, Coted’voire.
Nigeria took an early lead through Alice Ogebe in Thursday night’s game but the Ghanaians promptly replied before winning on penalties.
“Super Falcons will never beat me (Ghana) again! I have broken the dominance and as long as I remain Black Queens coach, Super Falcons will never beat Ghana,” said the 1999 World Cup star.
She went on to explain how her strategy of playing five midfielders as against Nigeria who played with two midfielders worked for her despite Nigeria scoring first.
“I studied the Nigerian team and I felt the only way to hold them was to choke the midfield and that’s why I used five midfielders as against their two.
“When I was a player, I suffered several defeats from the Super Falcons. They defeated us in Abeokuta, Nigeria (in 1998 AWC final) and also in Ghana and everywhere we met but I told myself that I will not allow them to beat me again as a coach.”
Beating Nigeria as a coach is one moment Tagoe-Quarcoo will forever cherish because she believes it has added value to her and people will now take her serious.
The Black Queens of Ghana will face host Cote D’ivoire who defeated Mali 2-0 in the other semi final in the Saturday’s final while Nigeria’s Super Falcons will face Mali in the third place match.