Black Stars head coach Otto Addo has urged caution despite Ghana’s hard-fought 1-0 victory over Mali in Accra, stressing that World Cup qualification is not yet secured.
Alexander Djiku’s decisive strike kept Ghana top of Group I with 19 points, but Addo reminded fans that the team still has work to do.
“Everybody was talking before the Chad game that we had already won,” he said. “It’s dangerous. We are not at the World Cup yet. We have a lot of work to do, and every opponent must be respected.”
Mali pressed strongly after falling behind, forcing Ghana to defend deep, but Addo praised his young squad for their grit.
“You could see that we have a young squad and players who haven’t played often for the national team, so there were nerves. But after 50 minutes we got into the game… then it was pure fight afterwards,” he noted.
The coach hailed Antoine Semenyo as “the lone fighter” in attack and debutant Kwasi Sibo as “a warrior throughout,” while also defending his decision to delay substitutions, insisting Jordan Ayew and Mohammed Kudus “still had moments to create something.”
On Mali’s claims that Ghana were too defensive, Addo was blunt: “We played a little more defensively because we knew they needed to win. What’s most important is the three points, and we got it.”
The Black Stars next face the Central African Republic away on October 6, before wrapping up their Group I campaign against Comoros four days later.
