Harambee Starlets renew rivalry with Ghana in Turkish Cup

Harambee Starlets head coach David Ouma has termed their 5-0 loss to Chile in the Turkish Women Cup as an eye-opener.

Kenya, who had beaten Northern Ireland 2-0i n the opener, were no match for a well-oiled Chile side on Saturday.

"We went into the match expecting a tough game against Chile and that is what our opponents delivered. They were more experienced on one-on-one situations and took advantage of every opportunity especially in the first half where we were challenged the most with their attackers evidently working twice as hard," said Ouma.

Ouma told Nation Sport they would definitely like to play Chile again, because they gave them an opportunity to gauge themselves.

Starlets who are in group 'B' with Chile, Northern Ireland and Ghana will be looking for a chance to redeem themselves in their third match against the West Africans on Tuesday. Romania, Hungary, Venezuela and Hong Kong are in group 'A'.

"We picked a couple of lessons from Chile, including not allowing our opponents break through the lines easily, giving the ball away too soon and keeping our mentality in check regardless of who we are playing. I'm glad set-pieces and corner kicks were perfect and we plan to use them against Ghana," said Ouma on phone from Turkey on Monday.

Kenya and Ghana last met in last year's Tokyo Olympic qualifiers where Kenya eliminated Ghana beating them 1-0 on aggregate in the third round.

The group winners will face off in the final, while the second-placed finishers will meet in third place play-offs.

The third and fourth-placed teams at the end of the group matches will play in the fifth and seventh place play-offs.