Ghana and Newcastle United winger Christian Atsu says his team, Newcastle United will profit from the change in the Africa Cup of Nations time table.
The Ghanaian is one of six African players at Tyneside and is confident that days of worrying over top players leaving for Africa Cup of Nations are over.
"We will not have players leaving for the Africa Cup of Nations again and so that should be enough to help the club," Atsu said
“We had to stick together. Individually, we knew they were better than us, so we needed to play as a team. We did that,” the 25-year-old winger added.
“We need to believe in ourselves, and continue to stick with our game-plans. We just need to keep our focus, keep working hard and try to win our next game.”