Walker: Minor mistakes proved costly

by Staff Reporter

Monday Jan 16, 2023. 13:19

Ghana head coach Annor Walker concedes they were made to pay for mistakes against Madagascar after their 2022 African Nations Championships (CHAN) campaign began with a defeat.

The Black Galaxies got off to a disappointing start at the Mohamed Hamlaoui Stadium on Sunday when Solomampionona Razafindranaivo opened the scoring for Barea in the 10th minute.

Worse was to follow as Olivier Randriatsiferana doubled the islanders’ lead on 61 minutes and although Augustine Agyapong managed to pull one back six minutes later, it wasn’t enough to prevent a 2-1 loss.

Walker acknowledged his players were poor in the first half but insists losing the first game of the tournament isn’t the end of the world as the West Africans can still turn things around in Group C.

“I think my boys disappointed me in the first half and I take it as one of those things that happen in football. We were well prepared for this game, but minor mistakes cost us the game,” he said in the post-match press conference.

“Such things happen in football. It happens in competitions that big teams lose their opening games. We may have lost but we are certainly not out of the competition yet.

“Madagascar played well in the first half, but we also did not have our usual rhythm. Apart from that, I did not see anything different from them.

“They were possessing the ball quite well, but I believe we could have done better ourselves and these are the things we will need to look at and remedy ahead of our next match on Thursday.

“I still need to analyse the game and to make a proper judgement on where exactly we went wrong and how it needs to be fixed.”

Walker’s side must beat Sudan in their next encounter in Constantine on Thursday to stand a chance of reaching the knockout stages.