Maxwell Konadu: Nigeria demonstrated that they had the desire to win

By Michael Amoah

Head coach of the Black Stars B, Maxwell Konadu has said that the Super Eagles of Nigeria displayed a strong desire in their last Group A match against Ghana in the 2017 WAFU Cup of Nations.

“Let’s not take anything away from Nigeria because they demonstrated that they had the desire and I think that the better side won tonight,” Maxwell Konadu said in a post match interview.

Maxwell Konadu reiterated further that Isaac Twum sustained injury during the warm-up, but the technical team thought it wasn’t too serious:

“We were forced to substitute Twum who got injured during the warm up, but we thought he could play until we realized that he couldn’t continue.”

Maxwell Konadu was also worried about the recovery rate of his players which has been one of the main disadvantages of this particular competition.

“It’s not about how fit our players were. There isn’t too much time to fully recover,” he noted.

Coach Maxwell Konadu was forced to play his cards on different occasions. For instance, Thomas Abbey who has been one of the pillars in the Black Stars B set up and a revelation of the 2017 WAFU Cup of Nations was not available for selection due to injury.

Midfield duo – Isaac Twum [captain], and Gideon Waja were all forced out in the course of the game due to various degrees of injuries whilst right full back, Amos Frimpong could also not last for the entire duration of the game – a situation which compelled Ghana to finish the game with ten men.

Ghana [6 points] topped the Group A ladder despite losing 0-2 to Nigeria on Monday at the Cape Coast Sports Stadium.

sports24ghana.com