'We'll play to the end'
GHANA have dispelled doubts about their chances of winning a fifth Africa Cup of Nations title, even after a laboured performance against Guinea in their closing first-round game.
The Black Stars drew 1-all with Guinea to finish at the top of Group D, and will face 2004 champions Tunisia today for a place in the semifinals.
"There is no doubt we will compete till the very end," declares John Pantsil, who captained Ghana against both Mali and Guinea in the absence of skipper John Mensah.
Pantsil expects Tunisia to be a very tough match for Ghana: "This is a crucial and tricky game. It won't be easy because Tunisia are a very good team who pass the ball around very well and can also run," he says.
Striker Asamoah Gyan agrees: "It will be difficult against one of the best teams in this competition."
But he adds: "We will rise to the occasion because, with the Ghanaian character, we always handle the pressure."
Ghana assistant coach Kwesi Appiah believes his team will lift their performance against the Carthage Eagles.
"Against Botswana, we did not play at our level. But for the second game against Mali, we played at about 70% of our capacity," says Appiah.
"Every game is different and we will treat them so.
We have watched video tapes of Tunisia. They are a very good team," he says.
The two sides last met in a friendly in 2006, with Tunisia winning 1-0.
The most cheering news for Ghana is that Mensah will be fully fit in time for this quarterfinal. The Lyon centre-back suffered a thigh muscle injury, but he was on the bench for the Guinea game to underline how quickly he has recovered.
Meanwhile, Les Aigles of Mali are through to the last eight of the tournament and Barcelona midfielder Seydou Keita has revealed that the 2012 Nations Cup quarterfinalists refused to be paid a qualification bonus to underline how committed they are to the country.
"The players refused to receive a bonus for qualifying for this tournament to demonstrate how much we love our country," says Keita, who was picked by CAF as the man of the match against Botswana.
Mali is a poor, landlocked West African country. About half of the squad at the Nations Cup in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea are drawn from the French league.
The team last got as far as the quarterfinals of the Nations Cup in 2004 in Tunisia, while they were eliminated in the first round in 2006 and 2008 and did not qualify for the 2010 tournament. - Fifa.com & Backpage
