Black Queen’s WAFCON exit: It’s my worst feeling in 20 years of coaching … Lars Björkegren laments

Black Queens Head Coach, Kim Lars Björkegren, has described Ghana’s quarterfinal elimination from the 2026 WAFCON as the worst feeling he has had in 20 years of coaching, after the team fell 2-1 to Malawi.

A dejected Björkegren said he felt the pain of his players and the nation after failing to secure Ghana’s first World Cup qualification in 20 years at the first attempt.

“Maybe potentially the worst feeling I had in 20 years of coaching. I’m feeling so much for this team, for Ghana. I really wanted to help them to go to the first World Cup in 20 years and we felt that we had a good chance to do it today, but we didn’t perform well enough even if it was a little bit of a 50-50 game. Always when you’re in the losing team you need to face the truth and the fact is that we lost with one ball and now it’s really painful,” he stated.

Kim Lars Björkegren’s side made a dream start when Chantelle Boye-Hlorkah gave Ghana the lead in the 7th minute.

Malawi responded strongly and drew level through star forward Temwa Chawinga in the 27th minute to make it 1-1 at the break.

Ghana pushed for a winner in the second half and thought they had found it when Doris Boaduwaa had the ball in the back of the net, but her effort was ruled out after a VAR check.

Malawi then grabbed the decisive goal inside the 79th minute through Rose Smith Kadzere to seal their place in the semifinals.

Despite a late push from the Black Queens, Malawi held firm to secure the win.

The defeat means Ghana misses out on automatic qualification to the FIFA Women’s World Cup, but the Black Queens still have a second route to the global showpiece through the playoffs.

“I felt that we started the game pretty well. We were holding the ball in the team, we were creating some chances, and we scored a goal. I think we started to kick the ball a little bit too long in the end of the first half and made it a little bit too easy for us and also for the opponent. Both teams were stretched and it was more looking like a ping pong game for a while and that is just good for the opponent,” he explained.

“So, we spoke about it in halftime to try to control it a little bit more. I think we did it for a while in the second, but in the end we couldn’t control it enough and create chances enough.”

The Swedish coach also pointed to fatigue as a factor, noting that Ghana had fewer rest days and had to travel before the quarterfinal tie, which affected some of his key players including midfielder Alice Kusi.

“We talked about it in the press conference yesterday that we had less rest days before this game, including some travelling. Of course, you can potentially see that Alice is a good example that I talked about, that I felt she started the game really well, but she couldn’t hold up her performance and probably because she was tired. She played a couple of days ago and you need probably one day more to get fit, but it’s out of our control and that’s just a fact when you are in Group D that you will always have less days to recover,” he added.

Despite the painful defeat, Ghana still has a second chance to qualify for the FIFA Women’s World Cup through the playoffs, where they will face Cote d’Ivoire on Thursday.

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