Ghana coach Chris Hughton has admitted to being frustrated after his side battled to a 2-2 draw against Egypt in their second match of the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast on Thursday.
The Black Stars led twice and bottled it all to allow the Pharaohs to pick a point from the game. Hughton handed a starting berth Mohammed Kudus and he grabbed it with both hands by scoring a brace in either half.
Kudus drilled home from the edge of the box to put Ghana ahead in first-half stoppage time, seconds after Egypt star Mohamed Salah was forced off through injury.
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Egypt, the seven-times champions of the competition drew level through Omar Marmoush inside 69 minutes but Kudus quickly restored Ghana’s lead in the 71st minute. Three minutes later, Mostafa Mohamed took advantage of a defensive error to smash home the second goal for the Pharaohs of Egypt.
“We will continue to fight. It is true that at the moment there is a lot of frustration in the locker room. Our team deserved more, but football is like that,” said Hughton as quoted by CAFOnline, adding: “It’s frustrating. In a similar performance, we would surely have won. Two errors cost us the match. We didn’t take this opportunity to take the three points.”
On why he substituted Osman, who was brought on in the second half was again substituted again for Joseph Paintsil, Hughton said: “Firstly, I would like to say that we love Osmane. However, I had to take him out because his mistakes were starting to affect his performance.”
On facing Mozambique, who drew 2-2 against Egypt in their opener, Hughton said: “There are no more small teams in Africa. We are preparing for a tough match against them. The calculations are already made, we need a victory to pursue our dream and I know we are capable of it.”