The head coach of Ghana Black Stars, Chris Hughton, has expressed his disappointment following their 2-2 draw with Egypt in the second group match of the Africa Cup of Nations, Cote d’Ivoire 2023, on Thursday night.
In a pulsating game at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny stadium, in which Ghana led twice, Egypt rallied back to pick a point.
Following a suspected hamstring injury, Egypt talisman Mohammed Salah was forced off the match in the 45th minute and replaced by Mostafa Fathi.
Soon after Salah’s substitution, the other Mohammed – Mohammed Kudus, stepped up for the Ghanaians.
Kudus scored his first, a brilliant left foot shot into the far left corner of the post, just before the referee blew the whistle to signal the end of the first half.
The Pharaohs came from behind twice. First, Omar Marmoush equalised after a defensive blunder from Inaki Williams gifted the ball to him and he rounded up Ghana goalkeeper Richard Ofori to score in the 69th minute.
Kudus scored via a deflected shot in the 71st minute. But Egypt made sure of a point when Trezeguet Mostafa Mohammed equalised in the 73rd minute.
“We will continue to fight. It is true that at the moment there is a lot of frustration in the locker room. Our team deserved more, but football is like that. It’s frustrating.
“In a similar performance, we would surely have won. Two errors cost us the match. We didn’t take this opportunity to take the three points,” Hughton said, according to CAFonline.
While Egypt has two points in second in Group behind surprise leaders Cape Verde, Ghana has just a point from two games and will need to beat Mozambique in their final group fixture on Monday to keep their AFCON 2023 hopes alive
The Black Stars coach is optimistic about their chances.
“There are no more small teams in Africa. We are preparing for a tough match against them. The calculations are already made, we need a victory to pursue our dream and I know we are capable of it.” he said.
