U-23 AFCON: We need to avoid mistakes against South Africa - Ibrahim Tanko

Black Meteors head coach Ibrahim Tanko says his team needs to minimize their errors defensively if they are to beat South Africa today and book their place at the 2020 Olympic Games.

Ghana missed out of earning an automatic ticket after losing 4-2 on penalties (2-2 full time) to Ivory Coast in the semi- finals of the ongoing U23 AFCON on Tuesday.

The Black Meteors will now face South Africa in the third place playoff today in what will be their final attempt to grab a ticket to represent Africa at the global event in Tokyo.

The match will kick off at 16:30hrs local time (14:30hrs GMT) at the Cairo International Stadium.

Ghana had to come back twice in the game against the Ivorians after conceding twice through some defensive lapses and though Coach Tanko admits to the team’s frailties, he is confident the Black Meteors will avoid mistakes in the play off match.

“It’s a fact that we’ve conceded goals in this competition due to defensive errors but we always try to minimize these errors. “

“We can better our chances if we make less errors. It’s difficult because we didn’t have some of the players who played in the qualifiers here with us.

“We have a chance on Friday and we will engage in some sessions to help us minimize mistakes in Friday’s match”.

We need to avoid mistakes and if we do that we will have an upper hand in the game”, coach Tanko emphasized.

He added that though his players were quite exhausted after playing for 120 minutes on Tuesday, they are professionals and will be battle ready against South Africa.

“Since Tuesday’s game we’ve worked hard on preparing and psyching them to play 100 % and secure the ticket to the Olympic Games on Friday”, the Ghana U23 coach said at the pre- match press conference on Thursday.