Guinea captain Ibrahima Traore has blamed his team’s 3-0 mauling at the hands of Ghana to their poor start to the game.
The Syli National were poor in their quarter final defeat to the Black Stars on Sunday in Malabo.
A brace by Christian Atsu and one from Kwesi Appiah – who was making his first ever competitive start for Ghana – proved too strong for the Guineans who were very high on motivation and confidence coming into the match.
Traore who had been Guinea’s shining light throughout the tournament failed to excel against the very tight-knit Ghana midfield.
The Borussia Monchengladbach star however blamed his side’s poor start to the game – where the conceded the opening goal under just four minutes – for the defeat against Ghana.
“The beginning of the game was not good,” he told MTNFootball.com.
“We started the game by conceding a goal and we didn’t play well which showed we lacked the confidence.
“We put ourselves under a lot of pressure because for most of us this was the first time we were playing a quarter final.
“The Ghanaian team are used to that [playing in quarter finals] so all those things maybe put us in a bad way for the game.
“We conceded a goal early and the second one came in a crucial moment of the game.
“It made it very difficult for us to come back and then in the second half we conceded again and it was done.”
Ghana now progresses to face tournament hosts Equatorial Guinea in the semi finals of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations on Thursday.