The captain of the Black Stars, Andre Dede Ayew, has assured Ghanaians that the senior national team will qualify from the group stages in the ongoing 2021 African Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
The Ghana Black Stars started the tournament with a disappointing loss to the Atlas Lions of Morocco, their North African counterparts, as they were beaten 1-0 via an 83rd-minute strike from Sofiane Boufal, which gave the three points.
Andre Dede Ayew, speaking after the game, admitted that the result was not what Ghanaians were expecting but he was confident that the Black Stars will make it past the group stages of the competition.
The Black Stars skipper said “It is a disappointing way to lose a game and concede a goal in the last five minutes but it is the first game. We need to look at our mistakes and do much more.”
“We have two matches left and I am confident that we will qualify from the group. We believe in ourselves and we believe in what we can do,” he added.
Andre Ayew in his comments singled out Kamaldeen Sulemana, the Rennes player, who played his first AFCON game for the senior national team, the Black Stars.
According to Ayew, his colleague is a great talent who has the qualities the team needs in order to progress to the next stage of the competition.
“He is a great talent and he has great quality and I believe he will help us a lot in the tournament,” he said.
He noted that he has not been feeling well for the past two days but he wanted to play for his country because he had been waiting for the past three years.
“I have not been feeling well for the past two days, I wanted to play, my colleagues wanted me on the pitch and I did everything because I have been waiting for this for three years now, we lost and I was unlucky to add a cut on my eye to it.”
Ghana will play against Gabon on Friday, 14th January 2022 at 7 pm local time.
