Ghana national team head coach Otto Addo says the Black Stars did not deserve to lose to Nigeria in their friendly meeting on Friday, Soccernet reports.
The Super Eagles secured a 2-1 win at the Grande Stade de Marrakech in Morocco to soar to their first win over Ghana in 18 years.
Cyriel Dessers opened the scoring from the penalty spot for Nigeria during a strong spell for the Super Eagles in the first half.
However, Ghana emerged from the halftime break the better of the two teams and looked the most likely to net the game’s second goal despite being reduced to ten men following the dismissal of Jerome Osei Opoku.
It was Nigeria who doubled their advantage late in the game, though, when substitute Ademola Lookman put the finishing touch to an excellent counter-attacking move.
Ghana finally got on the scoresheet when Crystal Palace ace Jordan Ayew rolled a 95th-minute penalty past goalkeeper Stanley Nwabali.
But it was too late for the Black Stars to muster the equaliser as Nigeria won their first game since finishing second at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations in Cote d’Ivoire.
Coach Addo is disappointed to suffer a defeat in his first game as the head coach of the Black Stars, maintaining that his boys deserved more.
“I don’t like to look too much about the positives because we lost,” Addo told Ghana.org.
“But I think we were a bit unlucky the way we conceded the first goal as the ball hit the hand, but like I said, we were unlucky.
“First half, they had the better chances but in the second half we really, really did well.
“If you want to come to the positive signs, the things we did in the second half with ten men were good.
“We controlled them; we were a little bit unlucky with the finishing. I think what killed us was their second goal because we were close to actually equalize but in all, a draw would have been deserved but like I said we lost and we have to improve and move on.”
Ghana’s Black Stars are yet to win a game in 2024, having drawn three and lost two of their five matches.
