<\/p>\n
By Martin Gomos<\/p>\n
Ghana\u2019s Blacks Sharks defeated Nigeria\u2019s Super Sand Eagles \u00a05\u20134 on penalties after a 4\u20134 draw in the first leg of their 2026 Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations ( AFCON) Beach soccer qualifier on Saturady at the Murtala square, Kaduna.<\/p>\n
The News Agency of Nigeria ( NAN) reports that with the win Ghana will\u00a0 proceed to the second leg which will be held next week in Accra, Ghana.<\/p>\n
Speaking after the match, the head coach of Ghana, Daniel Kotey described\u00a0 the two teams as\u00a0 perenial rivals with deep respect for each other.<\/p>\n
According to him, his team was\u00a0 confident of\u00a0 winning the match, saying that\u00a0 the atmosphere in Kaduna was\u00a0 very friendly.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know definitely we are coming to\u00a0 Nigeria to win and prepare adequately for the 2nd leg,\u201d he\u00a0 said.<\/p>\n
Daniel who commended the officiating, said that he expects\u00a0 the officials to replicate same\u00a0 in the second leg in Accra.<\/p>\n
Also speaking, the assistant coach of the Super Star Eagles, Kakari Christopher,\u00a0 said that\u00a0 destiny plays a role on its own because they worked very hard for the match to win.<\/p>\n
He said the result went the the other way round. He said the Eagles can still beat Ghana in Accra.<\/p>\n
Christopher added that his team will\u00a0 work\u00a0 on their lapses and adequately prepare to beat\u00a0 Ghana at home.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will concentrate\u00a0 on the defence. Our attackers are doing great, but the defence, we have to work seriously on\u00a0 that defence to see what we can do,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Christopher said his team did not utilise the free-kicks they had as much as their counterparts\u00a0 who made use of theirs.<\/p>\n
He\u00a0 commended the officiating as being unbias.<\/p>\n
Also speaking, the Ghanaian\u00a0 team Manager Djidodo Reuben described\u00a0 the victory as very important for his team.<\/p>\n
He said it is a two-legged\u00a0 qualifier, saying that it is not yet over because the second\u00a0 leg is coming up and they will have to prepare well.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a team, we are very good. We know Nigeria has not been in the Beach Soccer fraternity for a couple of years, but having come back now, it\u2019s an excellent showing. So we respect them,\u201dhe\u00a0 said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have that rivalry\u2014the Ghana-Nigeria rivalry\u2014and I think that this is keeping the momentum going\u201d he said<\/p>\n
He said that the team will to use the home advantage next week in Accra against Nigeria, saying that they want to be at the AFCON and will fight for the African Championship.<\/p>\n
He said that they had an outstanding performance, with Ghana player being the top scorer in the tournament, and the player is consistent with scoring.<\/p>\n
Also speaking, the Ghanian Captain Alexander Adjei praised three Nigerian players.<\/p>\n
He said he played the Copa Lagos\u00a0 and\u00a0 the AFCON with them, adding that are familiar with each other in different competitions.<\/p>\n
Reuber described the victory as exciting and appreciated the Nigerian government and relevant stakeholders for their support.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Ghana\u2019s Blacks Sharks defeated Nigeria\u2019s Super Sand Eagles \u00a05\u20134 on penalties after a 4\u20134 draw in the first leg of their 2026 Beach Soccer Africa Cup of Nations ( AFCON) Beach soccer qualifier on Saturady at the Murtala square, Kaduna.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1590,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6],"tags":[886,888,887],"class_list":["post-1589","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-2026-caf-beach-soccer-qualifier","tag-nigeria-vs-ghana","tag-penalties"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/images-4.jpeg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1589"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1591,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1589\/revisions\/1591"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1590"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1589"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1589"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/primerisenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1589"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}