The Black Stars will take on the Bafana Bafana on Monday afternoon in a cliffhanger encounter but Charles Akonnor believes he will be up to the task
Ghana coach Charles Kwablah Akonnor has insisted that his tactics and strategies will work to perfection against South Africa in the second game of Group G in the ongoing 2022 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.
The Black Stars struggled to defeat Ethiopia 1-0 in the opening game last week at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium thanks to Wakaso Mubarak’s long range effort.
After the game, a lot of Ghanaians launched a scathing attack on Akonnor and his players for their shambolic performance but he has assured them of an improved outing at the Soccer City Sports Stadium against South Africa.
“What is important is that we have to be efficient. Against Ethiopia, we didn’t excite you guys but we were efficient and it’s because we won. As we speak now, we are on top of the table and so we are not going to allow influence of outside pressure to disturb us,” Akonnor said
“Like I said, we are focused, we are here, we have seen South Africa against Zimbabwe, we have a strategy and we believe that it will work.
“We believe that even if they change their style of play we have an antidote to it and we will move out of this place with three points,” he added.
Ghana will miss the services of seven players who played a part in the win against Ethiopia when they come up with South Africa. They include Baba Rahman, Jordan Ayew, Jeffrey Schlupp, Andy Yiadom, Daniel Amartey, Kamaldeen Sulemana and Kofi Kyereh Daniel.
The next round of matches will be played in October and Ghana will host Zimbabwe while South Africa travel to Addis Ababa to lock horns with Ethiopia.
Winners of each of the ten groups will be paired after the second round of the qualifiers for a knockout phase in order to select five countries which will represent Africa at the next World Cup to be staged in Qatar.