By Patrick Akoto
Ghana coach Maxwell Konadu admits his side must lift up their game to beat Libya in Friday’s second group C game in the ongoing CHAN tournament.
The Local Black Stars pulled off an unconvincing 1-0 win over Congo at the Free State Stars on Monday night.
The Ghanaians are back in the midst on Friday where they take on leaders Libya who posted an impressive 2-0 win over Ethiopia.
There is a cloud of pressure hovering over the Ghanaians after they failed woefully in their last participation in the tournament two years ago and their trainer Maxwell Konadu is aware his troops must buckle up against the North African side.
"Ghanaians think we can confront any team and just run them over," Â Konadu said.
"But that is not necessarily the case. Every team came here to win, just like us. The team didn’t do so well in our last campaign (Nations Cup).
"And this time around, taking into consideration the performance the senior team put on during the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, there is a lot of pressure on us to perform. In saying that, the team we have here is not bad and we didn’t play too badly. We weren’t good, either.
"But as the tournament progresses I’m sure we can make amends and put up a better performance. We also know that the big boys are still out there waiting for us — Libya and Ethiopia — who are very good sides. We need to beef up our performance and try to go past them as well."
The Black Stars have a lot of polishing to do if they are to beat a determined Libyan side.