Black Stars trade blame over missed chances against Senegal

GHANA stand-in skipper Andre Ayew rued Christian Atsu missed chances in the first half, which he said would have won Black Stars the AFCON Group C match.

  Ghana fell 2-1 to Senegal in the opening game in the group widely referred to as “Group of Death”.

  “Had Atsu got those two big chances in the first half, it would have been 3-0 and then it would have been a different game altogether,” said the Olympique Marseille forward, who tucked away a penalty in the 14th minute after goalkeeper Bruno Coundoul brought down Atsu on his way to goal inside the box.

  “We had a good first half, but the second half was the difference. Senegal had this little luck that we lacked in the second half.”

  It was coach Avram Grant’s first competitive game in charge of Ghana and he also lamented that experienced campaigners skipper Asamoah Gyan and defender John Boye missed the match through illness and injury respectively.

 “It was a tough game for us. We played against experienced and very physical players,” said the former Chelsea manager.

  “We played well, we opened the scores and had some good chances. The players showed a good spirit, a fighting spirit, despite having two experienced guys ruled out.”

 “Asamoah [Gyan] is our leader, he’s our captain and he brings a lot to the squad when you see his stats,” he told MTNFootball.com.

  “But as we know, we don’t take risks with someone’s health.

  “It is true we all love football, we love the game and we’d love to win but after football life is more important.

  “He wasn’t feeling well and he couldn’t make it. He would have loved to be there.

  “We would have loved to see him there but I want to congratulate those who replaced him because they did a fantastic job upfront.”