Black Stars head coach Otto Addo has expressed disappointment following Ghana’s 5-1 defeat to Austria, urging his side to quickly regroup and respond ahead of their next test.
Ghana endured a difficult outing at the Ernst Happel Stadium, although they showed some promise in the first half but trailed 1-0 at the break after Marcel Sabitzer converted from the penalty spot in the 12th minute.
The second half, however, proved challenging as Michael Gregoritsch doubled the lead in the 51st minute before Mainz 05 full-back Stefan Posch added a third eight minutes later. Carney Chukwuemeka and Nicolas Seiwald then completed the scoring to seal a comprehensive win for Austria.
Despite the heavy defeat, the match serves as an important learning curve for Ghana as they continue preparations for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The former Borussia Dortmund trainer after the game expressed disappointment towards the team’s performance and hopes to see massive improvement on his part and that of the players before the Mundial.
“Yeah, difficult… difficult evening. I can’t really remember us losing like this. I’m really, really disappointed. At the end, I think we had a good first half where we… yeah, had some really, really good situations where we could have scored,” Addo said.
“The second half was really not good. At the end, surely, I think it was a little bit too high if we compare the two halves, but… big, big lessons to learn, especially for our young players. And now, it doesn’t help to talk too much about it.”
“We have to look forward to the upcoming match, and yeah, it will be an even tougher opponent. But yeah, we have to put everything in that match to bring back the belief in the whole team also and to show that we can compete on the highest level,” he added.
The Black Stars will now shift focus to their next friendly against Germany on Monday, March 30 in Stuttgart.
