Rwanda national women's football team head coach Grace Nyinawumuntu claims that her players were frightened to face Ghana even before the game began.

The Black Queens traveled to Kigali to inflict a 7-0 humiliating defeat on Rwanda at the Kigali Pele Stadium on Wednesday, September 20, in a 2024 WAFCON Qualifier first leg game and Nyinawumuntu has pointed out that her ladies were scared of the visitors from the very the beginning when the teams were doing pre-match warmups.

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"My players were afraid of the team since the warmup. When they returned in the dressing room, they looked so scared but I tried to calm them down and I motivated them," Nyinawumuntu states after the game.

The Rwandan gaffer admits that Ghana&039;s two opening goals, which came in the first 10 minutes of the game, were all due to her players’ early panic.

"When you look at the first two goals, they conceded them because they were scared," she added.

Commenting on the 7-0 humiliation, Nyinawumuntu said it’s a result she never expected because "I could not imagine Rwandan conceding all these goals.”

"Now that we got to know the team were playing against, I don’t think we can put in a similar performance in the return leg. We are going to improve,” she added.

Rwanda will travel to Ghana for the second leg which will take place at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium in on September 26.