Otto Addo: Selection to be based on performance in Brazil game

Head Coach of the senior national football team, the Black Stars Otto Addo has blamed the 3-0 defeat to Brazil on his poor player selection.

“I think I made mistakes.”

“I learned a lot more about my players and picking the next start eleven will depend on the performance in this game,” he stated at a post-match press conference.

The Black Stars suffered their fifth defeat against Brazil on Friday night after losing 3-0 at the Stade Oceane in Le Havre, France in a pre-World Cup friendly match.

Two goals from Tottenham Hotspur striker Richarlison and a goal from Marquinhos in the first half sealed a 5^th successive victory for Brazil against the Black Stars.

Despite a much better performance in the second half, Ghana could not score even a consolation goal as the Samba boys of Brazil put up an impressive performance to humble Ghana.

The Samba boys made their intentions clear in the early stage of the game with serious pressure in the attack.

Paris Saint German defender Marquinhos grab an early goal in the ninth minute before Richarlison scored two goals after outwitting Ghana’s defence.

Brazil missed clear scoring opportunities coming through Raphina, and Neymar.

At the start of the second half, Coach Addo made substitutions and brought  on Mohammed Salisu for Felix Afena-Gyan and Inaki Williams replaced Kamaldeen Sulemana.

The substitutions fueled an improved performance from the Black Stars.

In the 72nd minute, Elisha Owusu, Tariq Lamptey and Antoine Semenyo were introduced to replace Baba Idrissu, Denis Odoi and Dede Ayew respectively.

The friendly match forms part of preparations lined up ahead of the World in Qatar in November-December.

Ghana would play Nicaragua on Tuesday in Spain to fine-tune preparations for the biggest football spectacle in the world.

The Black Stars will later play Switzerland on November 17, 2022.

Ghana is in Group H with Uruguay and South Korea in the group stage, following the draw conducted in Doha on April 1.

The four teams selected into the group will play a round-robin format with each nation facing the other three. Group standings are based on points from those three group-stage matches — three points for a win, one for a draw, none for a loss.

The top two teams from each group based on total points advance to the single-game knockouts.

If teams are tied on points, goal difference is the first tiebreaker followed by goals scored.

If teams are also tied in those categories another set of tiebreakers is applied.