Ghana U-20 captain Mahatma Otoo insists the team will be up for the challenge at the 2011 African Youth Championship after qualifying for the competition in Libya.

The Black Satellites booked their place in the finals with a 4-1 home win against Benin on Saturday, thus completing a 6-1 aggregate scoreline over two legs.

With a title defence now on the horizon following Ghana's continental cup success in 2009, Mahatma believes the present team faces a big task of emulating their predecessors.

"It's important to have first qualified for the Championship. But the biggest task now is the competition itself," the Black Satellites captain told www.ghanafa.org, a day after beating Benin in Accra.

"We [Ghana] enter the competition as the defending champions and would surely be one of the favourites just like the other seven qualifiers.

"The past success would certainly add to our reputation but we have not won anything yet. We have to approach it [Championship] with all seriousness and take every game as it comes."

Mahatma will not make any 'rash promises' as Ghana now awaits the draw for the Championship which will see Cameroon, Nigeria, Lesotho, Mali, the Gambia, Egypt and hosts Libya all present.

"It's a difficult tournament and we expect a tough competition irrespective of the draw. Every side has quality but we would be up for the challenge," he said. "We can’t promise anything now, we have to prepare well for every side."

"We look forward to the competition and hope to achieve something."

The semi finalists at the African Youth Championship will fill the four places allocated to the continent at the 2011 World Youth Championships in Colombia later next year.

Ghana won the last competition hosted by Rwanda in 2009 after beating Cameroon 2-0 in the finals.