Carlos Queiroz said Ghana paid for one critical mistake more than the opponent after a 2-1 loss to Croatia sent the Black Stars to a third-place finish in Group L, admitting that his side conceded two easy goals in the final group game.
The Ghana coach said Croatia played better in the first half and “capitalised on our mistakes, including Petar Sucic’s 40-yard strike that he called “not possible to concede” at this level.
Queiroz praised Ghana’s second-half response — but said failing to capitalise on our opportunities proved costly.
Read on for the full transcript:
On the game
Croatia scored two goals. I think two easy goals was too much easy. The way they scored first goal and second goal. But the merit is from Croatia. When you score one more goal than the opponent, that means that you have the merit to win the game. Simple like that. It's meaning that you make at least one more mistake than the opponent. And when we make one more mistake than the opponent, there is nothing that you can do to win the game. The only thing that we can say is, first half I think Croatia played better. They have better control of the game. Second half was only Ghana playing the game. I think what we did in the second half, we should not be punished with the second goal. The draw was the most fair result. But in football there is nothing about fairness. The only thing that exists is you score more goals you win. You score less goals, you lose.
On Ghana having only scoring opportunity in the first half
This is exactly what I said, unless I said something wrong. Croatia played better in the first half, they controlled better the game. And we played much better in the second half. In terms of balance, I think the fair result, the acceptable result was the draw for what we did in the second half. What they did in the first half, they capitalised on our mistakes. A couple of back passes that we lost control of the ball. The goals, too easy goals in this level. There are goals that are not proper from the level of a World Championship. When we concede one goal from 40 metres, we have to do better. In the second half we had a couple of opportunities, also that we should score. But the story is simple. We played better in the second half; we did not capitalise on our opportunities. They played better in the first half; they scored one more goal than us. When that happened, there is nothing to say. The winner deserves the result. We conceded one critical mistake more than Croatia. And when you make a critical mistake more than the opponent, the result is not debatable.
On Luka Modric
Yes, he did well. As usual, he was the maestro of the team. We move a couple of players, different players in different moments of the game to try to block the decisions of Modric being the playmaker of the team. But the way he moves, it is always very difficult to control him. But this did not happen only in our game, it has been happening for 10 years in this football game. So, nothing different. We are not able to control him, we should control the players to where he sends the balls. And we did it most of the time. But one strike from 40 metres, you cannot concede one goal. 40 metres in this level, no. It is not possible to concede one goal with 40 metres distance.
On Antoine picking an injury
No, it is just a knock, twist a little bit the ankle, but it will be alright.
On team progress since he took over
I think for me, at the end of the day, I started working with this team, now it is my fourth game. I learned a lot in this game. It was a game that I had the opportunity to throw to the pitch a couple of different decisions. The best thing of this game is what we learned from the game. We learned a lot of things in terms of our evolution, our progress. With the game today, we have a clear picture about the performance of some players, what we can do differently in the next coming games. It was the first time that in 45 minutes we played 4-4-2, with two forwards. We didn't have time to work too much on this approach, but the players did well. I think with a couple of adjustments we can be even better, as we show in the second half.
On performance of African and whether the continent deserves more slots
This is a coin with two faces. My personal opinion, we have to see in the future. I do believe that what really has huge value, huge and significant value, is what is rare. I never see in my life common things, ordinary things that become with huge value. So the number of teams that qualify for the World Cup, I am afraid that can turn this competition into an ordinary competition. Because in South America at this moment, the brilliant success of one coach in South America is not to qualify. The ones that are really in the deadlines of the press should be the opposite. With so many teams qualifying for the World Cup, I think the value of the competition in terms of being rare to be in the World Cup is, in my opinion, still debatable. I need to see. It's an opinion that is based on my personal feeling. You see in Europe, who is out of Europe in the qualification? Even the qualification matches in Europe and Africa, they start to lose significance and meaning. Because everybody is qualified in South America, most of the European teams. So, you'll see in the future my opinion, it's just a humble opinion, following your question. Personally, my belief personally, in order not to reduce the rare significance and meaning of the World Cup, I feel that the value should be focused on serious competitions to qualify. The qualification is very tough, very serious, very competitive. And then bring the 24 national teams to the World Cup. Because this has also to do with the number of games that the players have to play at the end of the season. So, it is a lot of small details that demand that in the future should be studied very, very carefully. Of course, I finish your question with one comment, which is, as you know, today money talks in the game. And this is not called football, but money ball. So, when money starts to talk, the decisions inside the pitch start to change so let's see in the future what will happen. Personally, I prefer to see the World Cup as a rare event to be really very significant, to reach the qualification and then fight for the World Championship in the final stage. But that's a personal opinion.
On team meeting targets despite defeat
Yeah, I think, as I used to say, we win or we learn. Today we learn. And we learn to be better prepared for the World Championship. The World Championship, the real-World Championship starts in the next game. Group stage, it is warming up for the qualification. As I said today to my boys, qualification is not a destination. Qualification is just a credit card that you receive to deserve to be in this stage of the competition. Now we have to pay the price of having that credit card in your pocket. And these kinds of games are really when the World Cup starts. Everything to the winner, nothing to the loser. So that means that every single game is about drama. Nobody can hide anything since the first minute. Everybody must go for it and put everything in the game. And play really the knockout stage with that spirit of entertainment and drama, emotional. That's the real World Cup that starts next game.
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