CHAN qualifier: How half-time pep talk charged our players against Nigeria, says Ghana coach

Black Galaxies of Ghana coach, Annor Walker, has revealed how his players were able to destroy the might of the stubborn Nigerian side, in the first leg of the African Nations Championships (CHAN) final qualifying round on Sunday.

Second half goals from Daniel Afriyie Barnieh and Suraj Seidu were all Walker and his team needed to have advantage over Nigeria at the Cape Coast Stadium in Accra.

And reacting to the win, Walker explained how his players were psyched up going into the second half after they were contained in the first 45 minutes by the home-based Eagles.

“In actual fact, it was a difficult game especially in the first half because the Nigerians didn’t allow us to play the way we wanted,” Walker was quoted on ghanasoccernet.com.

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“So, after the first half, we talked to the players to change their mentality and play aggressively like how Nigeria did in the first half. After the break, I think the players changed their mindset and that paid off for us.

“In all, I will say it was a difficult game but all the same God has seen us through. We have struggled in the first half in our last two games (Qatar and Nigeria) but against Benin, it wasn’t like that because we had the chance to score two early goals in the first half.

“Against Qatar, we struggled a bit until the second half because they scored two goals which disrupted us. Nigeria too made it difficult for us in the first half and it is good that we have noticed our shortfalls, going forward we will change the narrative,” Walker stated.

The second leg is scheduled for Saturday September 3rd at the MKO Abiola Stadium in Abuja, with the winner of the tie qualifying for the CHAN tournament in Algeria next year.

The last time Ghana featured at the CHAN tournament was at the 2014 edition in South Africa where they finished as runners-up.

For the home-based Eagles they missed the 2020 CHAN tournament in Cameroon after losing to Togo in the qualifiers.