Black Stars interim coach Kim Lars Björkegren believes Ghana must improve their ball movement despite Thursday’s 2-0 victory over Somalia in the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Ghana secured their first win of the qualifying campaign at the Essipong Sports Stadium, with Jonas Adjetey and Felix Afena-Gyan scoring to give the hosts all three points.
“I think we had a good start of the game, we had a couple of good chances, of course, the penalty, we missed it. After that, I felt that we were struggling a little bit, I don’t know if the heat was too much, but the tempo was pretty low, we used too many touches, I think we gave Somalia a little bit of time, so I’m not so happy with the middle of the first half, but I think it was finishing in a good way, and also, of course, it helped that we scored a beautiful header.
“In the second half, I think it’s only one team on the pitch, I think it’s a game that can finish 2-3-4-0, but the most important thing today was the three points, so I’m very happy with them”. Lars Björkegren spoke after the game.
“Yeah, I absolutely think that we can do a second good game as well. We didn’t have that much information about Somalia, so the good thing is when you have played a team like this, that you know them better for sure into the second one. I think they had more information about us, to be honest, so that would be the upside.
But again, respect, because the heat is there. It’s not that easy to play when it’s hot like this. But we can improve in detail but also have a good tempo on the ball and things like that. From now, we need to be a little bit happier tonight, enjoy the fact that we won. And then tomorrow, take care of the boys’ bodies, and then we start from there again and start to build for the second one.
It’s not a question for me; I’m going to do my best when I’m here. I said it the whole time, my job is to be here to support Ghana, to be there for the boys, and do my absolute best to win every game and to help the boys back in this group, because I think we can go all the way and qualify for the AFCON. So, I’m doing my job now, and then we will see what happens after this.
