Ghana coach, Otto Addo, hailed his team’s resilient performance in the second half despite playing with 10 men after the Black Stars’ 2-1 loss to Nigeria in a friendly match on Friday.
Speaking at the post-match press conference in Marrakesh, Addo praised the efforts of the Black Stars but expressed disappointment with the way they conceded in the first half.
While acknowledging Nigeria’s dominance early on, Addo applauded Ghana’s significant improvement in the latter stages of the game.
Despite losing defender Jerome Opoku to a contentious red card in the 56th minute, Ghana maintained control of the game, and possession, and created scoring opportunities inside Nigeria’s box.
Reflecting on the match, Addo stated, “I prefer not to dwell too much on the positives because we lost. However, I think we were unlucky with the way we conceded the first goal as the ball hit the hand, but as I said, we were unlucky.”
“In the first half, they had the better chances, but in the second half, we performed admirably. If we focus on the positive aspects, our performance with 10 men in the second half was commendable.”
“We managed to control them; we were just unfortunate with our finishing. The second goal they scored hurt us because we were close to equalizing. Overall, a draw would have been fair, but as I mentioned, we lost, and now we need to focus on improvement and moving forward.”
Attention now shifts to Ghana’s upcoming encounter with Uganda on Tuesday, which will once again take place in Marrakesh.