Ghana’s president Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo has stated that he was gutted with the elimination of the Black Stars by Tunisia from the ongoing African Cup of Nation in Egypt on Monday evening.
The Carthage Eagles edged past the West African nation 5-4 on penalties in their last-16 tie on Monday night after a 1-1 draw in regulation and extra-time to take the last place in the Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinals.
https://youtu.be/rhSjAAiNosM
Ferjani Sassi scored the decisive kick in the shootout as Tunisia kept up their unconvincing progress in the tournament where they next meet debutants Madagascar in the last eight on Thursday.
Tunisia opened the scoring against the run of play when striker Taha Yassine Khenissi netted in the 73rd-minute before Ghana leveling in stoppage time through an own goal.
https://youtu.be/NlgYp30YADw
Appiah’s boys will book their ticket back home and hope for a better time in the future.
Reacting to the exit, Nana Addo, who had earlier made efforts to make the team come with the trophy back home, expressed his frustration but remained confident that the team will bounce back even stronger.
Like most Ghanaians, I am gutted by the exit of the Black Stars at AFCON 2019. I wish the team better luck next time. I am confident they will bounce back even stronger, and make all of us proud once again. 🇬🇭
— Nana Akufo-Addo (@NAkufoAddo) July 8, 2019
Before the AFCON tournament, Ghana was rocked by captaincy row when the head coach Kwesi Appiah named Andre Ayew as the new skipper, a position that was initially held by Asamoah Gyan. The feud even saw Gyan shortly retire from the national team. But president Addo came in to quell the dispute.
Addo feared the repeat of 1992 Nations Cup imbroglio in Senegal where factionalism – as a result of captaincy – tore the team’s aspirations into tatters.
Unfortunately, as per the expectation of many Ghanaians, things did not work out well on Monday night and the Black Stars were knocked out by the less impressive Tunisia, who have drawn all their matches in the 2019 AFCON competition.
READ: Interesting developments in AFCON 2019 and quarter-finals expectations