Ghana winger Joseph Paintsil has disclosed that the Black Stars had something to prove against Nigeria in the final World Cup play-off after a poor 2021 AFCON campaign.
Coach Otto Addo, who replaced Milovan Rajevac ahead of the play-off qualified the Black Stars to the global showpiece following a 1-1 draw against Nigeria at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja in March.
The Stars claimed the ticket to Qatar 2022 on the away goals rule.
"[Facing Nigeria] was a do-or-die game. If didn’t show anything for Ghanaians at the AFCON, then this is the moment to show them what we were capable of,” Paintsil said on ‘Star Connect.’
“Doing everything possible every game, especially the home game [in Kumasi] was really important for us. Also, it was really important for them to have a goal or to win. But it’s unfortunate we played 0-0, which was also good for us [going away in the next game]"
He added, "It was amazing because when he had the draw and we were going to play Nigeria, even though it was going to be a tough game, mentally the players were ready to sacrifice for the nation. Because it was the same squad from the AFCON, we knew ourselves very well so with Nigeria, through training we were just doing what we were asked to do by the coaches [regarding their weaknesses]."
"We needed to come out with glory because of the AFCON performance because Ghanaians like World Cup even more than the AFCON. The World Cup is special when they hear it."
Ghana will take on Portugal in their first game in Group H on November 24 before playing South Korea and Uruguay on November 28 and December 2 respectively.