Essien says Ghana's hopes of semi-final place at 2014 World Cup was ambitious

Published on: 25 September 2014
Essien says Ghana's hopes of semi-final place at 2014 World Cup was ambitious
Michael Essien says Ghana was ambitious in expecting to reach the semi-finals

Ghana midfielder Michael Essien says the prediction that the Black Stars would reach the semi-final of the 2014 World Cup was ambitious insisting that they should have been measured in their expectations as they were in the 'Group of Death'.

The Black Stars were drawn in a tough group at the tournament in Brazil when they faced Germany, Portugal and the USA yet there were expectations that the team could reach the semi-final.

That's because the previous two appearances saw the Black Stars go beyond the group phase at the first attempt in 2006 in Germany and also the quarter-finals of the 2010 edition in South Africa sparked huge expectations among fans of the team and also leaders of the country.

Essien, who was a ember of the Black Stars at the 2014 World Cup, says the expectation of reaching the semi-final was ambitious.

“The semi-finals prediction was an ambitious one, but it’s always good to have high ambitions and we certainly set out to do better than 2010," Essien told FIFA.com.

"Unfortunately we didn’t get anywhere near that because we didn’t win games."

The AC Milan midfielder admits that their performance and the results they got from the matches they played at the tournament in Brazil was not sufficient for the Black Stars to advance.

"Apart from the Germany game, which we could have even won, the rest of the games was just not sufficient to see us advance from the group stages," Essien said.

"He said at the group stages it’s always difficult to tell who the eventual winner will be, so he couldn’t say he could see them as winners at that point."

Essien says Germany deserved to win the World Cup given the performances they displayed during the competition.

“They (Germany) are a very good tournament team, so I always knew they would be there or thereabouts," Essien said.

I am not surprised they won it though because they combined experience with youth very well, and any team that can do that always has a chance.”

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