After seeing his side concede late against Chad in the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier, Otto Addo gave his thoughts in the post-match press conference. He spoke about missed opportunities, playing in a very difficult terrain, tactics, and our game plan and more.
Here is everything he had to say:
On the result
Yeah, it’s very disappointing. Just one point for us. Yeah, it’s not easy for us to play on this ground, in the heat, but we have to take it, and I think we came in well to score the first goal. Continued to dominate, we created a lot of chances, but we were not sharp enough to use them. For us, unluckily, I think the first shot from Chad, which hit the target, entered the net. It was a deflection, but this is football sometimes, you know. We had a lot of chances, we could have killed the game before, or we must have killed the game before, but we didn’t do it. They have one big chance, I think there were some wide shots from Chad, but other than that, there was no big chance of one deflection in the goal. So yeah, it’s really, really disappointing for us. I want to congratulate Chad for getting the point, for sure.
On home support
I think they’ve got great support from the spectators. And I want to thank everybody, the fans, how they welcomed us, to Chad. I want to thank all the fans who welcomed us here. They are very good supporters.
On whether players felt one goal was enough
No, no. I think, surely, going to a ball position, I think it’s very difficult to play on this terrain when it’s not watered. We can’t play fast, so it’s a disadvantage for us If the pitch is not wet, and the boys, surely, they play in Europe, they have a wet pitch, they can play fast. But the pitch was very slow for us, so it’s difficult to outplay the defenders. But also, I have to say, Chad did well in defending, and they didn’t allow too many chances.
On chances
For me, the most important thing is, the three or four good chances we had, we should have scored the second goal, to make our opponent weak, and also mentally weak, and us stronger. But we didn’t use our chances. Like I said before, in football, sometimes it’s like that, if you don’t use the three or four good chances you have, sometimes you’re unlucky and you’ll get one. Chad played very well at the end.
On having star players like Ayew, Williams, Kudus, and others and not taking advantage
In the end, I can’t say we played excellent, or we played well, because the result is everything, I know. If we had scored two or three goals, we would have talked differently, I know. But, again, respect to Chad for the good defending. I don’t know how many corners we had, we had a lot of corners, we did nothing out of that, we had a lot of shots, attempts on the goal, we had a lot of ball possession, and normally we have to win this game. So this is, at the end, surely not good enough, and we have to improve, especially on our execution.
On objective coming into the game
For me, in general, there are no small countries anymore. If you play away, it’s always difficult, especially in Africa, it’s always difficult to play away. You will never see big, big results in away games. I think no other country also scored more than two goals against Chad in general. So I can’t say it’s a normal thing that you score Chad with two or three goals. We did it in the first leg, but it’s an away game, and it’s different. Like I said, it’s normal, if you watch all the other results, the games Chad played before, they only lost one-nil, every game, away and at home. In football, there are no small countries, everything is close, and every country can defend.
On whether the result is a fair or missed opportunity for Ghana
To be honest, if you look at the goal attempts, the ball possession, the shots on the goal, the big chances, it’s a missed opportunity. But this is football, like I said, we have to take it like that. From tomorrow on, we have to think about Mali, we have to forget about the game. I’m very, very sure that other countries which will come here will also have difficulties. This is how it is; we have to look forward, and we have to beat Mali now.
