"The girls all played to instructions which gave us a good result. We are here to win all our games; we came for a serious business," Nigeria's coach said.

Nigeria's Under-18 women's handball team on Saturday defeated their Algerian counterpart 28-18 in their first game in Monastir, Tunisia at the ongoing Africa Women's Youth Handball Championship.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Nigerians gave a good account of themselves in the first match to make the nation proud.

The result of the first half was not the best for the Nigerian girls against the Algerians as they played out a pulsating 10-10.

Nigeria blew away their North African opponent to win the second half, scoring 18-8 to make the final result 28-18.

Shittu Agboola, the Nigerian team's coach, described the game as "a good beginning."

"I noticed that the girls were having unnecessary turnovers, so I made some tactical changes that saw the team use the wings more in the second half.

"The girls all played to instructions which gave us a good result. We are here to win all our games; we came for a serious business," he said.

Nigeria's Taiwo Babatunde was voted the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the match.

NAN reports that Nigeria is in group A with Tunisia, Algeria and Guinea.

Nigeria will play their next match against Guinea on Sunday at 4 p.m.

The 19th Africa Women's Youth Handball Championship, which started on Saturday, is expected to end on 23 September.