Black Satellites’ head coach, Jimmy Cobblah, has targeted qualification to next year's FIFA U-20 World Cup when they compete in the 2019 Africa U-20 Cup of Nations in Niger from February 2–17 next year.
In an interview with the Graphic Sports after his team booked their place in the upcoming continental competition last Sunday, Coach Cobblah said he was focused on making the semi-final of the African championship in order to secure an automatic qualification to the global showpiece in Poland next year.
He was hopeful of building a strong squad which will be ready and focused on challenging for the tournament when they come up against countries like Niger, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Mali, South Africa and Senegal.
"We are glad to qualify for the Africa Cup but the focus now turns to the World Cup in Poland and we have to work harder to achieve that during our participation at the tournament.
"The main objective is to get to the semi-finals of the tournament which ensures and automatic qualification and I believe I can build a team to achieve our target," Coach Cobblah said.
The Satellites qualified for next year's event via a 4-2 aggregate, having won 3-1 at the Cape Coast Stadium before managing a 1-1 stalemate away last Sunday to sail through.
Having won the tournament on three occasions in 1993, 1999 and 2009, Ghana failed to participate in the last edition hosted by Zambia in 2017.
For the third time in a row, the reigning champion of the competition failed to make it to the tournament after Zambia, winners in 2017, were edged out by Burundi, suffering the same feat as former winners, Egypt (2013), and Nigeria (2015), who both failed to defend their titles in subsequent editions.
Source: Graphic.com