AFCON 2017: Will Grant's bond with players be the catalyst for Ghana?

Published on: 20 January 2017
AFCON 2017: Will Grant's bond with players be the catalyst for Ghana?
Avram Grant, Coach of Ghana speaks during the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations Finals Ghana Press Conference at the Stade de Port-Gentil, Port Gentil, Gabon on 16 January 2017 ©Chris Ricco/BackpagePix

Avram Grant slouched on his chair as he watched Ghana overcome Uganda’s second-half suffocation to start their Africa Cup of Nations campaign with a win.

It wasn’t a pleasing sight but it was a better start to this campaign than in the last edition where the Black Stars lost to Senegal in their opening match.

Grant has formed a strong bond with the Ghanaian players, which could be a catalyst to the Black Stars winning their first Afcon title since 1982.

“He (Grant) has had a big influence on the team,” Ghana’s midfielder Andre Ayew said. “As soon as he arrived, we went to the final of the tournament. Since then we have lost only one game (against Egypt).

"We are working hard and we are playing well. He has a lot of influence on us and hopefully we are going to continue like this, but play our football for 90 minutes and not only for 45 minutes like we did against Uganda.”

Mali, unlike Uganda, should offer Ghana a sterner test when they meet in Port-Gentil on Saturday. These two nations play a similar brand of expansive football. But they could be forced to be more pragmatic on a pitch that makes controlling the ball a bit difficult.

Ghana will have to do that without Abdul "Baba" Rahman who picked up a knee injury against the Cranes.

“In this tournament it’s important to collect points early,” Grant said. “At this stage the points are more important than how you play because you will gradually improve as the tournament progresses.

"Some of the players haven’t been playing that much in their leagues. They didn’t come in the best physical shape. They worked hard in the training camp (in the United Arab Emirates).”

While the Black Stars are looking to end their trophy drought, Mali are searching for their maiden continental title. Their previous stars such as Frederic Kanoute and Seydou Keita couldn’t conquer Africa before they retired. Samba Sow is confident this generation of Eagles can do what their predecessors couldn’t.

“We know that Ghana are a big team in Africa,” Sow said. “We are here to win. We need to get three points. We have to believe that we can make it out of this tough group. We don’t look too much at who we are grouped with, but we look at what we need to do. It is difficult to win this tournament. In the past years we have had some good players like Keita and Kanoute, they couldn’t win this trophy. But we are a new generation with good young players. We want to make history.”

The Star

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