Ghana defender Gideon Mensah, has shared his expectations for Ghana at the upcoming FIFA World Cup, insisting that progressing beyond the group stage must be the nation’s minimum objective.
The Auxerre defender, who featured at Qatar 2022, says he feels the weight of experience ahead of his second World Cup but insists Ghana’s first target must be escaping a tough Group L with Panama, England, and Croatia.
“I mean, we are hoping that we do better than our last World Cup, which is to go out of the group stage and then we take it from there” Mensah told ghanafa.org.
He added: “I mean we can aim to go to the finals and to win the World Cup, but then it needs to start from somewhere. So, if we are to go to the last World Cup, then I think we have to also focus on getting out of the group stage and then from there we can look into what will happen.”
Ghana have begun preparations in Cardiff ahead of their pre-World Cup friendly against Wales, slated for June 2, with head coach Carlos Queiroz overseeing training sessions at Dragon Park.
The Black Stars are expected to spend a week training in Cardiff before taking on Wales, after which the team will travel to the United States for the next phase of preparations.
Queiroz is expected to use the training period and friendly matches to evaluate his squad before naming Ghana’s final 26-man squad for the tournament in Canada, Mexico and the United States.
Ghana has previously competed in 2006, 2010, 2014, and 2022, with their best performance coming in 2010 when they reached the quarterfinals.
