"We have a goal, which is Africa Cup of Nations 2019 and it is better for us to get a good result at our own backyard. Our bad performance against Uganda here has caused us a difficult World Cup qualification campaign.

"We know it is not over, nothing is impossible, you can say it’s close to impossible, but we will never give up until it is over.

Now we have to put that aside and think about the Africa Cup of Nation.

"Our motive for now is to be in Cameroon, we cannot say we would win the next African Cup, if we have not qualified yet. We need to do our job, it’s going to be tough, but we have to qualify if we want to achieve something great for this country," said Ayew. Ayew 27, congratulated the new additions to the team and urged them to seize the opportunity to achieve something great for the country and their career.

"I know some of the new additions and today you could see they have quality, though training sessions and matches are different ball games but to be honest, they were up to the task today.

"I congratulate all of them for being here for the first time, it’s not easy to be in this squad so they must thank God. They must seize this opportunity and do the best that they can for the country," he added.