Posted by Head Coach of the Black Stars Otto Addo has insisted that Ronaldo’s controversy with Manchester United is not Ghana’s problem ahead of Thursday’s World Cup clash against Portugal.
Earlier this week, Manchester United announced that they’ve agreed to part ways with Ronaldo. The decision came in after Ronaldo had an explosive interview in which he criticized Erik ten Hag, the club and some club legends.
Ahead of Portugal’s opening game for the 2022 World Cup against Ghana, there have been concerns that Portugal will be distracted by this situation. However, Otto Addo doesn’t care about the situation.
“I don’t know [whether Ronaldo saga can be a distraction] and to be honest, I don’t care,” Addo told the media as quoted by Goal.com.
“This is not our problem and I don’t think it’s a big problem. Everyone wants to win. No matter what happens, it’s a big stage, a big game at the World Cup level so I don’t think normally this can distract anyone.”
Otto Addo went on to add that Ghana has the quality to compete with Portugal but they have to be very brave and confident.
“We have the quality to compete with them. Surely, we have to be very, very brave to go into this match and we have to be self-confident to go into these matches. Our players are ready.
“We want to play football but surely we have to defend well. As you can see from the previous matches [in the tournament], little things can decide [a game].
“All the matches were very, very close and could have turned in each [team’s] direction and I expect this game also to be like this.”
The game will be played at the Stadium 974 and will kickoff at 16:00 GMT.