The Black Stars had to struggle from a goal down to beat their CAR counterparts 2-1 in a nail-biting Group E game last Thursday in Kumasi.

However, analysing the team’s performance after the game last Friday, the former national star told the Graphic Sports that he was not enthused by the Black Stars' performance and expressed the belief that they could have done better.

“I think we could have done better, we did not play really well. We couldn’t control the game very well because when you’re playing in Kumasi, with fans base like that you know you want to control the game very well.

Besides that, we all know we could have done better. The second half changes helped, and it was at the time the people were chasing the game to get the second goal.

He said in such games, we needed to take our chances early, and the Black Stars would have been under less pressure if they had scored earlier, which would have forced CAR to open up.

Preko, who scored four goals in 68 times appearances for the national team, said considering the quality in the national team, he could see the team was still yet to gel well. 

“I think we still haven’t gelled well, we had a coach who was a technical director before becoming a coach. People might say he was part of the team at the World Cup but it’s not the same.

“As the technical director, you are not the head coach, you are not in control of certain things but when you become the head coach you have to implement your own ideas and everything,’’