Gyan: No excuses for Ghana defeat

7 February 2013 14:31

Ghana captain Asamoah Gyan refused to blame a poorly conditioned pitch for their African Nations Cup semi-final exit against Burkina Faso.

The match finished 1-1 after extra time, but Ghana were beaten 3-2 in the penalty shoot-out which saw Burkina Faso advance to the final against Nigeria.

"I think we cannot find excuses with the pitch. We've all played with this kind of field before - we're back in Africa," Gyan said.

"I think before the game we saw the pitch and we didn't think about the field. It's very unfortunate we lost this game.

"We came here to win this game and to go to the final. We are really sad at the moment - it's normal. What else can I say? There is the third-place playoff coming up (against Mali).

"Definitely we'll be down right now but we will psych ourselves up and make sure we go for the third place."

Ghana assistant coach Maxwell Konadu was also keen for the team to bounce back and fight for third position in the tournament.

"We will go and do our best. All the boys are down at the moment. We as a technical team will try as much as we can to bring them up psychologically and physically," he said.

"Most of them were hurt on the field. We will do our best to bring them to the level that we think will be competitive come next Saturday."