Ghana would be looking for a morale boosting win before the final group game against the hosts, Rwanda.
The Black Satellites recovered from an early goal by scored just under a minute by Cameroon in the first match to draw 1-1 with the equaliser coming through the day’s best player, Andre Ayew in the 36th minute to bring the sides level.
Despite thrilling the crowd at the Amahoro Stadium, Ghana coach Sellas Tetteh was not impressed with his side’s failure to win over the Cameroonians.
Sellas Tetteh admits his side were ‘wasteful’ as he prepares Ghana for the second group A game against Mali at the Africa Youth Championship today.
A win for Ghana would take them to four points and put the team in a good position to qualify from the group and move them closer to picking one of the four tickets to the World Youth Championship later in the year to be hosted by Egypt as the AYC by extension serves as a qualifier to the World stage.
“I will term it champagne football without victory. Beautiful football to watch, great inter passing, the ingredients were there,” Sellas said in a post game interview.
“It is now for us to fight very hard. All the four teams have equal chances of qualifying. I believe by the second and third game we shall come out qualifying. It will be quiet difficult because the two teams to qualify will come at the last stages.
“I think we stand a brighter chance of qualifying and believe we have set a pace that we can keep up. We must progress with this performance.”
Sellas plans to keep his side focused throughout the game against the Malians to avoid a repeat of the setback they suffered in the first match.
“So many factors contributed to that but mainly it was a loss of concentration and my boys did not realise that when a game starts its just like when a game is ending. But it is something we will learn from,” Tetteh says.
Ghana fullback, Samuel Inkoom also adds his voice to the slack defending that saw the Black Satellites go on the back foot in the first match as he urges total concentration from his colleagues.
“We lost the three points in the opening minute against Cameroon so it’s important to start well and not make things difficult for ourselves,” the defender says.
In the other Group A match, hosts Rwanda will face Cameroon.