Otto Addo: Ghana Coach Shares Disappointment After Black Stars Draw With Niger

Otto Addo: Ghana Coach Shares Disappointment After Black Stars Draw With Niger

  • Otto Addo has bemoaned the performance of his team in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers
  • The Black Stars lost to Angola and drew with Niger in their opening two matches of the qualifiers
  • The team will next face Kwesi Appiah's Sudan in a double-header in October when the qualifiers return

Black Stars coach Otto Addo has expressed dissatisfaction with the performance of his team in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Niger.

An Oumar Sako late goal denied the Black Stars victory in their second Group F game at the Stade Municipal de Berkane in Morocco. Alidu Seidu had given the Black Stars a first-half lead before Niger's goal ten minutes from time.

Ghana remains winless in two matches and currently sits third in their group with four matches left to play.

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Ghana Remains Winless in AFCON Qualifiers After Draw With Niger

Otto Addo of the Black Stars.
Ghana coach Otto Addo disappointed after draw with Niger in AFCON qualifiers. Photo: Richard Sellers.
Source: Getty Images

Addo was left frustrated by his team's performance, insisting the players failed to deal with set-pieces, something they practiced during training.

"Definitely not, I am not satisfied at all. I am really disappointed, to be honest. We talked and we trained on set pieces, we talked about situations which could happen and the way they defended in the last 10 minutes was really, really bad," he said during the post-match presser.
"I think in general we had the game under control. We allowed sometimes some counter situations where we don't close the gaps really well and then we got the lead. I think from that point things were easier," he added.

Pressure on Black Stars in AFCON qualifiers

With a point in two games, the Black Stars have been placed in a difficult position to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations in Morocco.

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The Black Stars will face Sudan in a two-legged game in October before matches against Niger and Angola in November, per US Soccerway.

Ghana will have to win at least three of those games and draw another to be in a good standing to qualify for the tournament in Morocco.

Should the Black Stars fail to qualify for the tournament, it will be first time since 2004 that the West Africans are missing the competition.

Ghana draw with Niger in Morocco

Earlier, YEN.com.gh reported that an Oumar Sako close-range strike denied Ghana victory in their Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers after sharing the spoils with Niger in Morocco.

Alidu Seidu had given the Black Stars a first-half lead following a dominant display, but a dogged second-half display saw the host match Ghana evenly.

The Black Stars started the game brightly and just a minute into the match Inaki Williams tested the Nigerien goalkeeper.

Source: YEN.com.gh

Authors:
Lukman Mumuni avatar

Lukman Mumuni Lukman Abdul Mumin is a CAF-accredited Sports Journalist based in Accra, Ghana. He has been writing for the past eight years. Lukman has worked with some of Ghana's big media houses like GMA and was a regular pundit on GTV. He started his journalism career as a presenter and a writer after studying at the Gee Way Media School. Lukman has covered several international competitions including AFCON 2023. Email: lukmanevergreen2g15@gmail.com