Nairobi — Kenyan girls managed to get their groove back by winning their second match, edging out Nigeria 1-0 on Saturday at the Africa under-21 championships which started on Friday in Cairo.

The girls had started off on the wrong footing, crashing 3-1 to Zimbabwe in their opener which they led 1-0 until the dying minutes of the game when Zimbabwe scored quick goals.

In other matches, South Africa's girls opened the tournament on a flying note after embarrassing hosts Egypt with a 5-0 win to take an early lead in the pool.

In the boys' matches, South Africa mauled hopeless Libya 17-0 while hosts Egypt enjoyed a 27-0 thrashing of upstarts Sudan.

Kenya lost narrowly to Ghana 3-2 in a night match. The west Africans have been camping in Egypt for the last week prior to the tournament's start and have been training under floodlights while the Kenyans were playing for the first time under the lights.

South Africa's boys' and girls' teams are the tournament's favourites, with their senior national women's team having grabbed a ticket to the Beijing Olympics.

Sunday will be a rest day for both pools and play resumes on Monday with Kenya's girls up against hosts Egypt in the first match of the day. The boys will play Sudan in the afternoon.