2021 Afcon Qualifiers: Akonnor Seeks Balance And Compact Ahead Of Sudan Clash

Ghana coach, CK Akonnor, has cautioned his side to remain compact without the ball when they face Sudan in the Khartoum in the return leg of the 2021 African Cup of Nations [Afcon] qualifiers.

The Black Stars maintained their perfect start of the qualifiers after recording a 2-0 over Sudan at the Cape Coast Stadium in the first game and will now face the North Africans later today.

The team will be without captain Andre Ayew, scorer of both goals against Sudan 5 days ago, after he picked up an injury in training and did not travel with the team.

Meanwhile, Deputy captain, Richard Ofori is also suspended.

Akonnor contends the team needs work harder without the ball or risk being exposed by the opposition.

“We need a balance. The right balance in attack and defense,” Akonnor told the GFA website.

“In our first game, we found ourselves struggling when we lost possession and that is what we have worked on since the last match.

“And so, we are looking forward to improve in that area because we gave the opponent a bit of counter-attack situations.

“And of course, we expect them to come with two strikers, they are playing home, they need to win etc and so we need to better in that area and I think once we are good in that area, we will find a good situation.

He continued, "We need to be compact. Even though we did very well in terms of possession, without the ball, we didn’t look organized and that is the main focus now.

"We possessed probably 60% of the game, we controlled. And we want to continue to do the same thing here, but we have to be smart when it comes to situations when we don’t have the ball. We need to also play better in that sense," he added.

The Sudan, Ghana is will kick off at 13:00GMT on Tuesday, November 17, 2020.