GHANA head coach Otto Addo has claimed that his side only lost to the Super Eagles of Nigeria yesterday due to hard luck.
The Super Eagles defeated the Black Stars 2-1 in a friendly match in Marrakech, Morocco, with Cyriel Dessers and Ademola Lookman netting for Finidi George’s side.
Dessers, from the penalty spot in the first half, and Lookman late in the second gave the Super Eagles a 2-0 lead before Jordan Ayew’s spot kick reduced the deficit in stoppage time.
“I don’t like to look too much about the positives because we lost,” Addo told ghanafa.org. “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.
“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 equalise but in all, a draw would have been deserved but like I said we lost and we have to improve and move on.”
Ghana’s Jerome Opoku was sent off in the second half and Addo was impressed with his side’s response to going a man down.
“The way Abdul Salis was running and how he controlled the game was really, really impressive. But all the others did well too,” he noted.
“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 equaliser with the chance he had with the header, then maybe we get a draw but in the end we lost.”
Ghana will face Uganda in their next friendly on Tuesday while the Super Eagles will play Mali on the same day.
