Ghana coach Otto Addo has praised his side for being brave against a Worldclass Portugal side despite the 3-2 loss at Stadium 974 in their opening Group H match.

The Ghana boss believes the game became difficult when Cristiano Ronaldo scored from penalty spot which he deemed to be a wrong decision.

“Surely we are very disappointed especially when I see the penalty situation, ” Addo told the Media on Thursday.

“We had a good match, ball possession was with Portugal we knew that they were good. We didn’t play our counters that well but we defended well allowing less chances.

“We were hoping that second half when they push more we will have more space but when they scored the goal (penalty) the game changed. I think it was really a wrong decision. We are playing the ball but surely there is contact afterwards. I didn’t know why VAR didn’t come up to check.

“It’s difficult against a Worldclass team when they are leading it’s very difficult to play against them but we were brave. We tried as much we scored two goals we almost came back. We were a little bit out of luck,” he added

Despite conceding the penalty Ghana came back with an equalizer from Andre Ayew but the captain was removed from the game almost immediately by Addo. The Portuguese seemed to have exploited the change by scoring two quick goals. Addo defended his move to withdraw Ayew.

“First of all on Andre, it was a tactical change, he had a yellow card and I was a fearing that he can’t go in to do it how I wanted so I took him off to bring a fresh player also. This was the reason and I don’t think it had a big impact because in that moment it was actually 1-1 and the game was hectic we made some few mistakes which we allowed the second and the third goal.”

Up next for Ghana is Korea Republic on Monday at the Education City Stadium.

Kelvin Trudeau Musako

Football Journalist | TotalEnergies AFCON 2021 Photographer | Media Officer - Kabwe Warriors FC | Graphic Designer | Videographer