Ghana coach Maxwell Konadu has praised his side's tactical discipline after their hard-fought 1-0 win over DR Congo at the 2014 CHAN quarter-final clash on Sunday.
An expertly converted second-half penalty by defender Kwabena Adusei claimed victory for the Local Black Stars over the 2011 champions at Bloemfontein.
And, the manner of their commitment to stick to instructions is one that has left the Ghana coach very impressed.
"When we started this project, many people had little confidence in this team. And for me it is always better to come into a tournament as underdogs than to come with high expectations and just cannot progress," Konadu told www.ghanafa.org.
With a squad still yet to hit their stride, Konadu says giving them confidence to work hard has reaped some benefits so far.
"In the previous edition, we had all the best players of the country then but we couldn't even progress to the next stage but here we are we have a group of people who think they can fight till the last blast of the whistle.
"They have the belief in themselves, we gave them the confidence and we told them this is the platform for you. They came and they are doing it for us and for me, I'm very very impressed."
Kwabena Adusei scored a 67th minute penalty to secure Ghana a place in the semi-final as they make their third-straight appearance at the tournament.