The national under-18 women handball team on Saturday defeated their Algerian opponent 28-18 in the first game in Monastir, Tunisia at the ongoing Africa Women’s Youth Handball Championship.
Nigerians gave a good account of themselves in the first match to make the nation proud.
The result of the first half was not good for the Nigerian girls against the Algerians as they played out a pulsating 10-10.
Nigeria blew away their North African opponent to win the second half, scoring 18-8 to make the final result 28-10.
Shittu Agboola, the Nigerian team’s coach, described the game as “a good beginning”.
“I noticed that the girls were having unnecessary turnovers, so I made some tactical changes that saw the team use the wings more in the second half.
“They girls all played to instructions which gave us a good result. We are here to win all our games; we came for a serious business,” he said.
Taiwo Babatunde of the Nigeria was voted the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the match.
Nigeria is in group A with Tunisia, Algeria and Guinea.
Nigeria will play their next match against Guinea on Sunday at 4 p.m.
The 19th Africa Women’s Youth Handball Championship, which started on Saturday, is expected to end on Sept. 23