2025 AFCON Qualifiers: Otto Addo explains late substitutions after Ghana defeat to Angola

Black Stars head coach, Otto Addo has opened up on leaving his substitutions late during the game against Angola on Thursday.

Ghana suffered defeat in their opening match of the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers after Angola forward Felicio Milson scored late to snatch the points for the away side.

However, Addo waited till the final ten minutes of the game to bring on Joseph Painstil, Majeed Ashimeru and Inaki Williams. A decision which did not prove fruitful.

Speaking after the game, the 45-year-old explained the team's performance at the start of the second half made it difficult to replace any of the starters.

"I know that if I would have changed earlier, people would have said, why did you change? Whatever you do, I know when you lose, you're the bad guy. But I take it. After the game, everybody knows more and maybe we could have done better in changing," he said after the game.

"I'll think about it I'll take it home and think about it but like I said the second half to be honest was really, really good. We had the right positions. In the first half, we had some problems, I talked with Alidu Seidu, he was too high so he had to come back," he added.

"We took better positions in between the lines and the player played well. We break them down to the half and we didn't allow too many counter situations even though there were some which were also dangerous and yeah, like I said, football is sometimes like that.

"We were lucky maybe a little bit even though we deserved to win in Mali. But there we scored a goal and won and today Angola scored a goal. But I can just repeat myself, I think at least a draw would have been deserved."

The Black Stars travel to Morocco with hopes of bouncing back from the defeat to Angola when they take on Niger at the RS Berkane Stadium.