After seeing us draw 0-0 with Sudan in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers on Thursday, Otto Addo spoke to the press.
He was asked about the positives from the game, the team’s performance, the brilliance of Alidu Seidu and Ibrahim Sulemana, the conversion of chances, and much more.
Here is everything he had to say:
On analysis of the match
I think everybody saw that we played well. It’s just really, really bad luck. And their goalkeeper did really, really well. Big, big complement to our defence. From the goalkeeper, starting from Ati-zigi, with the defensive line, Alidu Seidu, Alexander Djiku, and Gideon Mensah, for not allowing the opponents too many counter-attacks and not allowing them to have too many chances. And those chances they had, they defended well. Also a big, big complement to our defensive midfielders, who really played well. Elisha was exceptional for me, but also Alidu Seidu was exceptional. And then also, Ibrahim Sulemana, in his first game from the beginning, we controlled everything. The only thing that was missing was the goals, and surely we have to work on this. We have a few days to analyse it and see how we can score better. The chances were there—a lot of chances, but this is football. This is football, sometimes very, very hard, difficult for us. So now it pains even more. The Niger game hurts even more. But I think today we did well.
And there’s nothing much I can say; that’s the result. This is the most important thing in football.
On positives
I think we deserved to win, but we didn’t. And we will stay positive, and we will beat them away. With the same performance, the same passion, the same creativity up front, we will beat them away.
On whether the spirit and commitment were lacking
No
On taking chances
Surely, we will try to train on finishing and give them confidence, that’s all. This was the only thing that was missing. The spirit was good, the passion was there, the defensive discipline was there; they’re just about to finish the action, that’s all. Sudan was very lucky today. Next time we see them in Libya, they won’t be lucky, then we will, that’s all.
On plans for the next game
Look, I’m not interested in any records or whatsoever. I want to win the next game, and then the world looks different, that’s all. All these statistics and this and that—it’s like that. What can I do? We can only look forward and look for the next match and try to score, that’s all. We will try as much as we did today, and then it will be rewarded. That’s all I can say.
On assuring fans of winning next week
Look, this assurance that everybody’s talking about—why? For what? This is football. I cannot even assure; maybe God will take me tomorrow and I’m dead. What can I assure? We will try our best. And I know that at the end we’ll be rewarded. And the positive thing is, what I want to tell you, all of you, is that it’s still in our own hands. We have to win the next game, that’s all. And then still, we are not qualified yet. Then it’s still a long way. It’s going to be very, very tough to the last match, I think. But we will do it. With this performance, again, we will do it in Libya, against Sudan.
On Sudan
Every team is a threat. And they did well in defending today. Especially their goalkeeper did well. But like I said, if we were a little bit more clever in using our chances, we would have won today. And this is what we need to work on. I think we were better. I’m looking at my team, and I think we were good. The goalkeeper defended well. But we created so many chances. I can’t say they had a good performance. The only good thing they had was the point they took. And there we have to work on it. As I said before, we have to work on winning games. We have to win the next game to stay in the race.
On team mentality going into the next game
This is one of the things that every team is trying to do. The players do everything they can to help us. It’s one of the main things we need to do. They show on an international level that they can score, and I believe in them that they will score in the next game.
