But the Ghanaian was astounded by the merciless scoreline over Nigeria on a clear Tuesday evening with a performance that would be recalled considerably beyond the group stage dust.

 

Kwesi Appiah, the former coach of the Ghana national team, could not conceal his joy at the last whistle. “I was shocked with some of my players’ performances. If you noted, my changes were deep into the second half because everyone was performing quite well.”

 

Actually, his first replacement came in the 79th minute when Mubarak Abdallah took over from Salah Adel, proof of Sudan’s mastery of the game.

Simple terms: “We knew it was going to be difficult, especially the first 20 minutes,” Appiah said about the game plan. Our strategy was to counter by absorbing pressure.

 

He was caught off guard even by the scoreline. “I was not anticipating the scoreline, but I knew if we play our best, we could defeat Nigeria.”

 

Appiah was kind to his counterpart, Eric Chelle, despite the decisive scoreline: “I believe the home-based Super Eagles aren’t that bad. Generally speaking, they played well tactically.

 

The coach only needs to do some finishing with the attack. The first game against Senegal was not that terrible; they had spells of possession in the second game, but our approach was beneficial.”