The Black Stars captain admits his side had a rough preparation ahead of the Afcon but believes they will recover from the poor start
Ghana captain Andre Ayew has admitted that they did not have one of the best of preparations due to injury concerns and COVID-19 cases.
The Black Stars held a two-week camp in Doha, Qatar where they played one international friendly against Algeria.
However, Ayew insists the preparations did not end well since some players only arrived few days to the start of the competition while others, including himself, have been battling with injuries.
“[We were missing] a lot of things,” Ayew told GOAL. “The preparation wasn’t the best, we’ve been missing players, some of them only joined us here, we’ve had injuries.
“We know it’s not the best way in which to prepare ourselves, but there are no excuses,” he added. “We’ll go home, we’ll relax, and we will make sure we beat Gabon on Friday.”
Despite losing against Morocco, Ayew is optimistic the Black Stars will show good reaction in the next game on Friday when they clash with Gabon who also pipped Comoros 1-0 to go first in Group C.
“When you lose a game, there are always regrets but it was a very tight match.
“We could have scored like they did but there weren’t many chances in the fixture.
“Today, Morocco take all three points and we’re disappointed, but I think the team played well.
“We matched Morocco—one of the favourites—boot to boot, so we need to continue, we need not to lose confidence. I really believe in what we do.”
“We are calm and we believe in ourselves, in what we can do,” he concluded. “It was a disappointing result, and to concede in the last five minutes or something but it’s just the first game.
“We need to look at our mistakes and do much more,” he added.
