Coach of Ghana’s national team the Black Stars, Chris Hughton says he is angry and frustrated about the team’s performance at the 2023 African Cup of Nations(AFCON) in Ivory Coast.
Having failed to win a game at the group stages with a defeat and two draws, the coach said, it was not the kind of result they expected.
Jordan Ayew scored twice from the penalty spot to give Ghana a seemingly comfortable 2-0 lead
“Just like everyone else, I am angry and frustrated. We came into a tournament to do well but unfortunately, we did not get the right results,” he said at a press conference after Ghana’s 2-2 draw with Mozambique on Monday.
“We have a group of players that want to do well at the competition but unable to avoid certain mistakes in order to get the right results,” he stated.
The Black Stars have been knocked out of consecutive Africa Cup of Nations tournaments at the first hurdle
He added that, Ghana conceded two goals in each of the three matches with most of them being individual errors which must be corrected in future.
“We have conceded goals and have not put ourselves in positions where we could score more goals. The energy levels were not at high as the Egypt game and did not expect to concede the way we did,” he stressed.
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We put ourselves in positions where we have to score three goals in each game. We continued to make fundamental mistakes and not able to see games through,” he added.
However, he said, he would take full responsibility of the results as a coach since he was the head of the team.
He also admitted that,they did not perform well in all three games at the competition.
Ghana needed a win to advance to the next stage of the 2023 AFCON but gave away a two goal lead to draw 2-2 with Mozambique in their final group game of the competition.
The result left a bitter taste in the mouths of the hundreds of Ghanaian supporters who trooped to Ivory Coast to cheer the Black Stars.
That included a team of over 160 supporters sponsored by MTN to Abidjan to support the national team.
The disappointed fans would depart Abidjan Tuesday morning to Accra, hoping that there would be victories for Ghana in subsequent competitions.
Credit: From Michael D. Abayateye
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