Soccer News of Thursday, 3 December 2009

Source: GNA

Black Princesses advance after Congo withdrawal

Accra, Dec. 3, GNA - The national U-20 team, the Black Princesses have advanced to the second round of the African qualifiers of the FIFA U-20 women's World without kicking a ball.

This follows the withdrawal of Congo, their opponents at the first round.

Information gathered by GNA Sports from the Confederation of African Football (CAF) headquarters in Cairo, Egypt, indicates that the Congolese announced their withdrawal ahead of the supposedly first leg fixed for Brazzaville this weekend.

The second leg was scheduled for Accra in a fortnight's time. With this development, the Princesses will face Tunisia, who also progressed due to the withdrawal of Egypt at the penultimate stage of the qualifying rounds for the fifth edition of the biennial championship. Tunisia will host the first leg on the weekend of January 8 to January 10 next year and the return leg is due in Accra on the weekend of January 22 to January 24.

Should the Princesses scale over the Tunisian hurdle, they will face the winner of the Central Africa/DR Congo versus Botswana/Namibia at the ultimate round.

The Princesses search for their maiden appearance at the event which began in 2002 and have yet to taste action in the qualifiers after drawing a bye at the preliminaries.

Only two teams will represent Africa at the championship to be staged in Germany from July 15 to August 1, 2011.