2024 Olympic Qualifiers: Black Queens target successive victory under Nora Hauptle against Benin in return leg today

Published on: 31 October 2023

The Black Queens of Ghana will later today host Benin at the Accra Sports Stadium in the reverse leg of the 2024 Olympic Games qualifiers.

The Queens head into the game with a 3-0 scoreline in the first leg in Cotonou last Friday.

The away victory adds to Nora Hauptle's collection of wins since taking over the team in January 2023, winning all eight of the games she has been in charge.

The team has scored 29 goals in the eight games while they are yet to concede a goal in all competitions under the guidance of the Swiss trainer.

Ahead of the fixture against Benin, Hauptle warned of complacency from her side.

"We play always for results and qualification. It's the second leg and so of course we will try to win this game. It's the second round of our Olympic qualifiers and it's our objective to pass to the third round in February," she said.

"We take this game with the full seriousness, focus and we analysed the first game and set our training tactics to find solutions and we will show the answer on the pitch."

Despite suffering a 0-3 deficit ahead of the return fixture, Benin's assistant coach, Frederic Hounkponou believes his side is capable of ending Ghana's unbeaten run.

"Football is played in 90 minutes. We lost in Benin [but] we can still win here. We respect Ghana so much, a big football nation with all due respect but anything can happen," he said.

"No team is unbeatable. Ghana has an eight-game unbeaten run but [today] will decide."

Victory for Ghana will take them to the third round of qualifiers where they could up against one of Africa's heavyweights in Zambia, who advanced to the third round through a walkover due to Mali's absence.

A successful third round could potentially set the stage for a clash against either Tunisia or Morocco in the fourth or final round, with the ultimate prize being a ticket to the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

But all attention will be on overcoming the hurdle of Benin before returning to Africa Cup Nations qualifiers action next month against Namibia.

The game has been scheduled to kick off at 15:30 GMT.

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