Ghana coach Claude LeRoy believes his side's flowing game was affected by the poor state of the pitch in the 2-1 victory over Guinea in the African Cup of Nations opener. "The first thing is not the quality of the armchair in the VIP room, but the quality of the pitch," LeRoy was quoted as saying by BBC Sport. "In more than 20 years in Africa, it's the worst pitch I've ever seen. We have a technical team which likes to play one-touch football and this pitch badly affected our game." The ball was no longer a slippery object in Accra's Ohene Djan stadium as life was made difficult for both sides. Ghana and Guinea were on equal terms when Sulley Muntari fired a spectacular shot few minutes before the final whistle to give the Black Cats a precious victory. Despite victory, the hosts were guilty of missing many clear-cut chances and were unlucky after the post denied them three times in the first-half.
Nouzerat "We created so many opportunities to score; scoring seems to be very complicated for us. But it was a very good performance by the Black Stars," LeRoy said. "We were also unlucky in the first half when we hit the post three times." On the other hand, Guinea coach Robert Nouzerat had no complaints after his side produced a lackluster display. "This is the worst match Guinea have played under me. My regret is that we didn't play the way we should have," he said. The next game will be decisive for us. The consequence of losing the first game is that if we lose the second, we're out."
