Grant leaves Ghana coaching job
LIBREVILLE. — DEPARTING Ghana coach Avram Grant has pointed to his side’s lack of killer instinct during the African Cup of Nations for their inability to win the competition.
The out-going former Chelsea manager was given a two-year contract by the Ghana Football Association to win the Africa Cup of Nations but ultimately came short after defeat to the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon.
“We missed some chances in the competition but I think Ghana has a bright future,” Avram Grant said after the third place defeat to Burkina Faso
“We conceded four goals in the competition and three of them were set-pieces- we need to look at the details,’’ Grant said.
Alain Traore’s fine second half strike handed Burkina Faso third place at the Stade Port-Gentil on Saturday night.
Ghana had a bright start in the first five minutes and Agyemang Badu missed a header from close range after a great cross from the left, as the Burkinabe were still asleep.
Despite Stallions’ failure to ignite in the opening stages of the encounter, it was Alain Traore who tried a long curling shot from a set piece in the 13th minute, but goalkeeper Richard Ofori collected with ease.
Four minutes later, Paulo Duarte’ men took another shot through Aristide Bance as he beat his man, but his shot went wide.
The Ghanaians were awarded their first corner in the 26th minute and the ball fell for Thomas Tekpetey in the box: he hit the upright and Kouakou Koffi managed to punch the rebound away from danger.
With five minutes remaining in the first half, Prejuce Nakoulma produced a great run, beating three defenders in the box, but his final shot was disappointing as it went wide from the right of Ofori’s posts. It was 0-0 at the interval. With one minute to the hour mark, Jordan Ayew delivered a brilliant set piece from the right wing into the box, only for Tekpetey to see his strong header going inches over the crossbar. In the last 12 minutes, the match opened up as Ofori produced a sweet save to deny Cyrille Bayala resulting from a brilliant counter attack. The keeper parried the shot away and the rebound was off target by Alain Traore.
However, with two minutes to go, Traore produced a fantastic finish from a set piece on the right flank. He curled his shot to the far corner, beating Ofori.
In the last minute, Jonathan Mensah pushed forward to pull one back for Avram Grant’s men, but was denied by keeper Koffi, who punched the ball to concede a corner. — AFP.
“They will play home and away matches. Each group will play home and away games at one venue, that’s in one country and then go to another country and play all their away matches.
“The top two from the groups automatically qualify and Group A number two and Group B number two will play home and away to choose the best (third) team,” said Chiware.
Zimbabwe qualified for the championships held in Tunisia, in 2015 and will be hoping to repeat the same feat this year. But Chiware said looking at the countries that will battle it out for qualification, they have a mammoth task ahead of them as both groups are likely to provide tough competition.
“Those eight teams are strong. Three of those teams — Angola, Mozambique and Zimbabwe were at the Afro-Basket in Tunisia, so already they want to go back.