Former Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko coach J.E Sarpong has backed Kwesi Appiah to defeat Congo in the 2018 Fifa World Cup qualifiers at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium on Friday.
The Black Stars are in a dire need of three points to bring back hopes of making it to their fourth consecutive World Cup after Uganda defeated Egypt 1-0 on Thursday to open the race.
Appiah’s men have picked only a point from two games and sit third on the log.
“I don’t think Kwesi Appiah is under any pressure ahead of game. He’s calm and I believe he will deliver against Congo as we all expect,” Sarpong told Goal.
“I want the supporters to come and cheer them up but they should not try to put pressure on them. A charged atmosphere will give Ghana a convincing victory to help us in the qualifiers,” he added.
Sarpong also insists Raphael Dwamena’s absence will not be felt since there are equally good replacements but has warned the strikers against selfishness.
“Although Raphael Dwamena is out of the game, Kwesi Appiah has good replacements to fill the void so the setup is balanced. Our problems have always been goal scoring so if Asamoah Gyan doesn’t score we can still win games but let’s hope he will have a good game and Jordan Ayew also comes to the party after scoring for Swansea City in the Premier League last week.
He added: “The players, especially strikers, must not be selfish upfront because from their last training session one could realise that they fluffed several opportunities instead of passing to a teammate who was in a good position to score.
This is a World Cup qualifier and every move made must result into something positive.”
Apart from Dwamena, Goal understands that John Boye and Harrison Afful have been ruled out of the game after picking injuries.
Source : Goal
