Ghana Coach Insists Black Stars were Unlucky Against Super Eagles

Ghana Coach Otto Addo has said his Black Stars were unlucky not to at least get a draw from the Jollof Derby against rivals Super Eagles because they controlled the game.

The Super Eagles won the friendly 2-1 in Marrakesh, Morocco Friday.

“I don’t like to look too much about the positives because we lost. But I think we were a bit unlucky the way we conceded the first goal as the ball hit the hand, but like I said we were unlucky,” he told the GFA Media.

“First half they had the better chances, but in the second half we really, really did well. If you want to come to the positive signs, the things we did in the second half with 10 men was good. We controlled them; we were a little bit unlucky with the finishing.

“I think what killed us was their second goal because we were close to actually equalize but in all, a draw would have been deserved but like I said we lost and we have to improve and move on.”

He said he was impressed with his team even when they were reduced to 10 men.

“Absolutely, the way Abdul Salis was running and how he controlled the game was really, really impressive. But all the others did well too,”Addo reasoned.

“To hold them with 10-men in their half and pin them was a massive thing. We had good possessions; we helped and supported each other in the right timing, especially Abdul Salis, when they pressed us, he went into the right spots to get out of the pressure and from there also we created danger with Jordan, with Semenyo.

“The wing backs also in the second half were good, with Tariq (Lamptey) and Ebenezer (Annan) and it was really, really good. Ernest Nuamah you can’t take the ball from him, he was difficult to catch, at the end we could have created a little more if we were lucky and Antoine Semenyo scored the equalizer with the chance he had with the header, then maybe we get a point but in the end we lost.”

“In the first half we had a little bit of problems because I wanted him to play like a false nine to drop more into the midfield. 

But we couldn’t control the game the way we wanted.

“In our squad we have about eight players who are here for the first time and on the pitch also we trained just four days together with the whole new squad because of injuries and for that I have to say they adapted well and they did well in adapting to the way I want them to play was good, really.”

Jerome Opoku was sent off for dissent and Addo blamed this on a mix-up in languages.