Black Stars head coach Otto Addo has explained his decision to make substitutions late in the game against Angola in the AFCON qualifiers on Thursday, September 5, 2024.
Ghana suffered a defeat after Angola forward Felicio Milson scored a goal deep in injury time.
Addo brought on Joseph Painstil, Majeed Ashimeru, and Inaki Williams in the final ten minutes of the game, but the decision did not yield the desired results. The coach explained that the team’s performance at the start of the second half made it difficult to replace any of the starters.
“I know that if I would have changed earlier, people would have said, why did you change. Whatever you do, I know when you lose, you’re the bad guy. But I take it. After the game, everybody knows more and maybe we could have done better in changing,” he said after the game.
Addo also praised the team’s performance in the second half, stating that they had taken better positions on the field and had broken down Angola’s defense. He acknowledged that football is sometimes unpredictable and that Ghana were unlucky to lose the game.
“We took better positions in between the lines and the players played well. We break them down to the half and we didn’t allow too many counter situations even though there were some which were also dangerous and yeah, like I said, football is sometimes like that,” he added.
The coach also reflected on Ghana’s recent draw against Mali, saying that they had deserved to win that game. He expressed his disappointment with the defeat to Angola, but is looking forward to bouncing back when they take on Niger in Morocco.
“We were lucky maybe a little bit even though we deserved to win in Mali. But there we scored a goal and won and today Angola scored a goal. But I can just repeat myself, I think at least a draw would have been deserved,” he said.
Ghana will face Niger at the RS Berkane Stadium in their next match, hoping to get back on track in the AFCON qualifiers.
