Defender Daniel Amartey has apologised to Ghanaians for the Black Stars’ early exit from the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
Ghana needed at least a draw to cruise to the round of 16, however, the Black Stars succumbed to a 2-0 defeat to Uruguay; a game skipper Andre Ayew missed a crucial penalty.
Speaking to GNA Sports, the Leicester player was hopeful the Black Stars would qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup to be staged in the USA, Canada, and Mexico.
“I know everybody is disappointed because in this game we needed at least a draw. If we had won against Uruguay and failed to go through it, I think Ghanaians would have been happy a lot because of what happened in 2010. So what I have to say is we are very sorry and thank you to all of them for their support back home and here.
“We are grateful and we hope to qualify for the next World Cup,” he said.
In the game against Uruguay, he said the penalty miss in the early stage of the game changed the momentum of their play, which led to Ghana’s defeat.
“We came into the game with a win-or-draw mentality to go through. When we got the penalty, you saw what happened, when we missed it, everything changed, and they came hard, and they got a goal.
“It’s football, they have a lot of mature players, if we had scored the penalty, they would have gone down but with this, we went a little down and they came harder and scored the two goals, and it was difficult for us to come back.”
Ghana crashed out of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar after picking three points in three games to miss out on the round of 16 stages of the competition.
