Gershon Koffie has tasked his Black Satellites colleagues to give everything to save their Africa Youth Championship campaign.

Ghana, after a disappointing opening loss in Group B to rivals, Nigeria, come up against Gambia on Thursday, needing all but a win to keep their hopes of progressing past the first round stage alive.

The Vancouver Whitecaps attacker, who is yet to make his bow at the Championship in South Africa is very confident of his side's chances and has challenged the squad to show strength of character to get a win.

"We want to continue to play in this Championship. We need to get our campaign back on before talking about the title defence," Gershon told www.ghanafa.org ahead of the second group game with Gambia.

"A win against Gambia would take away the pressure. You know we are the defending champions and that comes with some added pressure. If we had won [against Nigeria], we would have been in a better position going into the next game.

"But we can't look back now. We can only improve. The body-language of the team looks good and shows our determination to win tomorrow [against Gambia]."

Both Ghana and Gambia lost their opening day games, a situation which makes their clash a very interesting one if they are to preserve their stay in the competition beyond the group stages.

Ghana's game will be the second of the day at the Dobsonville Stadium with Nigeria and Cameroon going head to head in the first meeting earlier in the day on Thursday.

The group winners and runners-up qualify for the FIFA-organized U-20 World Cup in Colombia beginning in July.