Ghana’s interim coach Otto Addo believes that if their opponents underestimate the Black Stars at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, they will be surprised.
Following the draw for the competition to be held later this year in Doha, Qatar’s capital, the former international winger issued a warning.
In Group H of the global showpiece event, the four-time African champions were pitted against Portugal, Uruguay, and South Korea.
The 46-year-old, who was born in Germany, was hired as a stand-in coach when Serbian coach Milovan Rajevac was fired two months ago.
The Black Stars’ lacklustre performance in the recent 2021 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, which resulted in Rajevac’s dismissal, has raised concerns in some quarters that Ghana may be pushed around in their World Cup group.
However, Addo, who is a member of the coaching staff at German heavyweights Borussia Dortmund, believes the Black Stars may produce significant upsets in Qatar if they prepare properly.
“If we’re at 100 percent, we can beat anyone,” the former Ghana international winger, who played for the Black Stars at the 2006 World Cup, said.
“I think it is difficult and I have not really taken a critical look at the group but in football, everything is possible than in cup games because there are big teams in Divisions One and Third Division.
“But it is very interesting because you can win or lose against everything and at the level of the World Cup, everything is capable of causing an upset and so everything is possible.
“From my point of view, I was born in Germany and I would have loved that game but on the other hand, I look at Germany and Spain, it is good that Ghana is not in that group.”
Ghana’s 2022 World Cup campaign will begin with a match against Portugal, followed by a match against Uruguay, and finally a match against South Korea.
Their return to the world event will come months after they were eliminated in the group round of the recent AFCON.
The Black Stars were eliminated from the tournament in Cameroon after failing to win a match in a group that included Morocco, Gabon, and the Comoros.
They lost their first group encounter against the Atlas Lions, then drew with the Gabonese before losing to Comoros in a surprise setback, resulting in their elimination with only one point.
Addo says the Black Stars were unlucky during the tournament in Cameroon but believes their experiences will help them triumph in Qatar.
“The Africa Cup of Nations [AFCON] was a collection of bad circumstances, one came after the other and they were very unlucky.
“The performance was poor but a lot of bad luck also worked against us.
Addo, who worked as the assistant trainer at Danish side Nordsjaelland before moving to Dortmund, believes his experiences of working with some of the best coaches in the world will help him bring out the best in the Black Stars players.
“I’ve been able to learn a lot from excellent coaches like Lucien Favre, Edin Terzic and Marco Rose.
“The fact that I deal with the players even more intensively and individually has also helped me in my dealings with the national players.”
The Black Stars will be competing in their fourth World Cup, having missed the previous edition in Russia four years ago.
The four-time African winners made their debut in Germany in 2006, then went on to compete in South Africa and Brazil in 2010 and 2014, respectively.
Ghana’s best performance came in the 2010 World Cup, when the Black Stars advanced to the quarter-finals before losing to Uruguay, a team they will meet again in Qatar.