Black Princesses head coach, Yussif Basigi has blamed his team’s 4-1 loss to Japan in the ongoing FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup on lapses in concentration.

Ghana faced a tough challenge in their second Group E match on Thursday night, falling to the Asian side.

After the game, Basigi acknowledged that while the team had a solid game plan, their focus waned at critical moments.

“I will attribute this game to a lack of concentration at a point,” said Basigi after the game.

“I think we mapped up a very strong strategy against them it worked until the 40th minute then [the players] lost focus in the next few minutes we conceded which was not the best.

“Even in the second half, we were able to read exactly what they were going to apply and then we ask [the players] to stay focused and mark them only for them to lose concentration again and unfortunately they had another two goals.”

This defeat follows Ghana’s earlier loss to Austria, marking back-to-back losses in the tournament. The Black Princesses now face a must-win situation in their final group game against New Zealand, as they aim to advance as one of the best third-placed teams.

Ghana is still striving to make it past the group stage for the first time, despite having qualified for six consecutive tournaments.