Head coach of Ghana's U-17 side, Laryea Kingston, has defended his side's performance in the win over Cote d'Ivoire in their WAFU B U-17 Cup of Nations opener.

The Black Starlets defeated the Ivorians at the University of Ghana Stadium on Wednesday afternoon to go top of Group A.

Joseph Narbi scored a first-half brace while Godfred Sarpong, Harve Gbafa and Mark Kagawa Mensah were all on the scoresheet in the 5-1 win.

The Black Starlets had a good start to their WAFU B U-17 AFCON Qualifiers with a 5-1 win over Côte d’Ivoire.

Not the best performances from the team but Kagawa Mensah and Theophilus Ayamga were great on the day.

Credit to Michael Armah as well. pic.twitter.com/weNClbvT1s

— Lawrence Degraft Baidoo (@kweku_lawrence) May 16, 2024

Despite the 5-1 win, the Black Starlets were second-best as far as possession and control of the game was concerned.

However, Kingston believes that was largely due to how good the Ivorians are.

"For me, we all know the Ivorians are a football country but with the help of my technical team and the others, we tried to monitor them from their pre-tournament towards this tournament. We managed to get two games against Argentina and against France which those two countries are very good sides and we focused more on when they are on the ball than when they are off the ball," he said after the game.

"Through that, we did a little bit of opponent analysis with the boys. In as much as we have our game plan, and our style that we want to play against every opponent, we still manage to focus more on the opponent the way they play.

"It worked perfectly for us and I thank the technical team and everyone who supported this course."

With the win over the Ivorians, Ghana move top of Group A with their final group game against Benin set for Tuesday, May 21.