World Cup: Otto Addo warns opponents against underrating Ghana

Ghana’s interim trainer Otto Addo says their opponents will suffer a shock if they underestimate the Black Stars at the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

The former international winger sounded the warning following the draw in Doha, the Qatari capital, for the competition to be played later this year.

The four-time African champions were handed a tricky task to play Portugal, Uruguay and South Korea in Group H of the global showpiece event.

The 46-year-old, who was born in Germany, was brought in as the stand-in coach following the sacking of Serbian trainer Milovan Rajevac two months ago.

The unimpressive showing of the Black Stars at recent 2021 TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, which resulted in the axing of Rajevac, has sparked concerns in certain quarters that Ghana would be pushovers in their World Cup group.

But Addo, who is part of the technical staff at German giants Borussia Dortmund, believes with enough preparations the Black Stars can cause major upsets in Qatar.

“If we’re at 100 percent, we can beat anyone,” Addo said.

“I think it is difficult and I have not really taken a critical look at the group but in football, everything is possible than in cup games because there are big teams in Divisions One and Third Division.”

“The Africa Cup of Nations [AFCON] was a collection of bad circumstances, one came after the other and they were very unlucky. The performance was poor but a lot of bad luck also worked against us.”

“But it is very interesting because you can win or lose against everything and at the level of the World Cup, everything is capable of causing an upset and so everything is possible.”

“From my point of view, I was born in Germany and I would have loved that game but on the other hand, I look at Germany and Spain, it is good that Ghana is not in that group.”

Ghana will open their tournament at the 2022 World Cup by taking on Portugal before playing Uruguay and then wrap up their group campaign with a clash with South Korea.

Their fourth appearance at the global tournament will come months after they suffered a surprise group phase exit at the recent AFCON.

The Black Stars were knocked out of the group phase of the tournament in Cameroon without a win in a group comprising Morocco, Gabon and Comoros.