Augustine Arhinful praises Black Meteors for AFCON qualification

Ex-Ghana international Augustine Arhinful has commended the Black Meteros after they secured a historic qualification to the U-23 Africa Cup of Nations.

Ghana were held to a 1-1 draw by the Fennec Foxes last Friday at the Accra Sports Stadium before traveling to Algeria to seal a 1-0 win courtesy a 67th-minute strike from Yaw Yeboah.

The Black Meteors will be making their first appearance in the tournament after missing out in Morocco 2011 and Senegal 2015.

”I want to applaud the lads(Black Meteors) for such stand outperformance yesterday. We lacked a potent defensive midfielder in the first leg that was why we couldn’t win but in Algiers, we provided,” Arhinful told Kumasi-based Light FM.

”I would like many players from the Black Meteors, migrated to the main national team (Black Stars) because they are the foundation of the senior team in order to secure a proper progression of them.

”We should have a particular system of play example (4-3-3, 4-2-3-1) which would be abreast to the Junior team through to the senior national, and moreover maintaining the players and being consistent has been our major problem.”

The Black Meteors will join hosts Egypt, South Africa, Zambia, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Mali for the 2019 tournament between November 8 and 22.

The Afcon will, in turn, serve as qualifiers for next year's Tokyo Olympic Games, with the top three teams in Egypt set to represent Africa at the global showpiece.