Black Stars: we didn’t create enough chances against Madagascar – Chris Hughton

Black Stars head coach Chris Hughton has given a cold assessment of his side’s performance against Madagascar on Sunday. Chris Hughton’s side could not manage the win needed to secure qualification as they played out a goalless draw in the island nation.

In his post-match assessment of the game, the coach was frank as he pointed out what the team failed to do in the game. He noted that though Madagascar is not a minnow as there are no longer minnows in the game, Ghana had control enough to get the results.

“The game was tough, just as in every game, there’s no easy game on the continent. We had a lot of possession even in the first half but to change the momentum of the game, you needed to score,” he explained.

Also, he explained that due to Ghana’s failure to score, the hosts grew in confidence, especially with the backing of the home supporters. That confidence by the now eliminated East Africans, he said could have been avoided with a goal from Ghana.

“Because the longer the game goes when you don’t score, you give Madagascar the encouragement. They are playing in front of the home supporters who were cheering them on and they were growing in confidence so at any stage we needed to score to change the feeling of the game.”

Speaking on the team’s failure, he said the team had so much possession but could not create chances out of it. “We had a lot of possession but we didn’t create enough clear chances and when you are unable to do this, it’s very difficult to win games,” as quoted by the GFA.

Despite the draw, Ghana maintains its top position in the group with nine points, one more than Angola. The Black Stars final game in the qualifiers is against the Central African Republic who are just two points behind Ghana after suffering a 1-2 defeat to Angola on Saturday.