Ghana captain Stephen Appiah wants the Black Stars to replicate their African Nations Cup performance when they line up for Sunday's Group D curtain-raiser against Serbia.

The Black Stars, bereft of some established regular players including Appiah himself defied the odds to finish runners up in Angola back in January with many of the under-20 World Cup-winning side.

Though the stage is quite different, the Black Stars captain hopes the younger players step up a level.

"You can see it in the way they play, they are really hungry," he said.

"In Angola they got to the final - that shows they can really do it if some of us are not there."

Despite his impressions about the younger stars in the Ghana set up, Appiah says the Serbs would still pose a threat.

"Everybody's talking about Germany," he said, referring to the group's top seeds. "But I'm scared about Serbia."

"They are aggressive, technically they are good, they are arrogant, they have everything," he said in an interview.

"We are just focused on Sunday's game."

Ghana plays Serbia in Pretoria in their first group D match before matches against Australia and Germany.