Head Coach for Kumasi Asante Kotoko, Charles Kwablah Akonnor has described the performance of his defenders on Sunday against Hearts of Oak as perfect whiles citing that it helped them to emerge victorious on the day.
The Porcupine Warriors and the Phobians played out an entertaining fixture at the Accra Sports Stadium yesterday in the semi-final of the GFA Normalization Committee (NC) Special Competition.
At the end of it all, the Kumasi based side beat their rivals 5-4 on penalties after playing out a one all draw game at the end of the stipulated 90 minutes.
Speaking in a post-match interview, CK Akonnor revealed that though his team was forced to do a lot of defending, he believes his backline stepped up and did a good job to ensure they won the match to qualify them into the final of the competition.
He explained, “There were two things in this game. A team that possessed the ball but up to the final third it’s over and we needed to do that in a perfect way. We came into this game knowing that Hearts could pass the ball very well, possess the ball very well, and also to make sure that we utilize their weakness to our strength which was through the flanks”.
“Unfortunately there were things we couldn’t do right. We couldn’t keep the ball and so we struggled by chasing the ball. What was perfect with us was our defensemen. The way we defended was perfect. We looked for the opportunities and luckily for us, we had the man who has been scoring for us, he came back and he delivered”, Coach Akonnor added.
Kotoko will now face Karela United in the final of the tier 1 competition on June 30, 2019. The team that wins will have the opportunity of representing Ghana in the next edition of the CAF Champions League.