Ghana Coach Carlos Queiroz framed Ghana’s 2-1 loss to Croatia as a lesson, not a failure, telling his squad “we win or we learn” and insisting “the real World Championship starts next game” after the Black Stars’ finished in third place to set up a date with Colombia in the Round of 32 of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Speaking after Saturday’s defeat at Lincoln Financial Field, Queiroz said the group stage was only “warming up for the qualification” and challenged his players to embrace the knockout stakes ahead.
“Yeah, I think, as I used to say, we win or we learn. Today we learn,” he said. “And we learn to be better prepared for the World Championship. The World Championship, the real-World Championship starts in the next game.”
“Group stage, it is warming up for the qualification. As I said today to my boys, qualification is not a destination. Qualification is just a credit card that you receive to deserve to be in this stage of the competition.”
“Now we have to pay the price of having that credit card in your pocket. And these kinds of games are really when the World Cup starts. Everything to the winner, nothing to the loser.”
“So that means that every single game is about drama. Nobody can hide anything since the first minute. Everybody must go for it and put everything in the game. And play really the knockout stage with that spirit of entertainment and drama, emotional. That’s the real-World Cup that starts next game.”
Queiroz said his fourth game in charge gave him a “clear picture about the performance of some players and what to do differently in the next coming games, including the 4-4-2 shift used in the second half.
“The best thing of this game is what we learned from the game. We learned a lot of things in terms of our evolution, our progress.”
