The 62-year-old coach said at the post-match press conference last Saturday that he was disappointed by his team’s performance leading to their exit from the competition because he was looking forward to victory.

“I am really down. I never expected to lose this match. Even at 0-2 down, we failed to score even just one goal. It is a very big blow for us as a team.

"The Nigeriens were winning the 50/50 balls. They were determined. You could see that they were determined to win this match at all cost and when they got an early goal, it gave them more determination and, on our side, it demoralised us,”, the FC Samartex 1996 gaffer noted.

The veteran coach went into the game without his arrowhead and prolific striker, Daniel Afriyie Barnieh, who missed out due to a red card he received during Ghana’s last group game against Sudan.

Explaining the impact on the absence of Barnieh on the team’s performance, the coach was dumbfounded only to say it was heartbroken to lose the game.

“Seriously, I don’t know what to say because I am short of words. It is a very big blow losing this match but everything that God does is good.’’

The coach paid tribute to his opponent for changing their style of play from what they did against Cameroun and believed that the early goal Niger scored dampened the spirits of the Ghanaians and even though they fought hard to come back, their morale was further crashed when Niger got the second goal.

"I have confidence in my players but we have to give credit to Niger. I watched their game against Cameroon but today, they changed the way they played.

"The early goal really demoralised us and when we conceded the second goal, we struggled to come back and eventually lost. I don’t think we deserved to lose,” he lamented.