Onform Spedag women’s football club striker Esse Akida scored a hat-trick to help the national women’s football team Harambee Starlets go past Portuguese champions CF Benfica 3-0 in their first match of the the ongoing 5th edition of the COTIF International womens football tournament in Valencia, Spain on Sunday night.
Akida who is the current Kenya Women’s Premier League top scorer with 13 goals gave the side coached by David Ouma a 28th minute lead.
The speedy forward returned to haunt the Portuguese side in the 49th minute before she wrapped up the scores with 20 minutes remaining on the clock.
The former Kenya Methodist University (Kemu) player was also the standout player when the Starlets beat Uganda’s Crested Cranes 4-0 three weeks ago in a friendly match in Kisumu.
Akida scored a goal and provided two assists, as Wendy Achieng was also on target while Mary Kinuthia bagged a brace.
Starlets who are drawn in pool ‘A’ alongside RCD Espanyol will need to extend the good performance when they take on RCD Espanyol on
Tuesday (today) if they are to have an automatic qualification into the next round of the tournament.
Defender Wendy Achieng said, “We are happy after registering our first win.”