In all, coaching is putting your thinking into action, Zito explained during the post-match press conference, as reported by Footballinghana. Now, I studied them and revisited the match they played against us, then I saw that we gave them enough space to operate because they are full of technique, that is the No. 14, 20, 10, 8 and 12.
“We tried something called tracking and getting free - track them, get free and play - so denied them the space to operate. You can t deny them for the whole 90 minutes but where it mattered, were able to make a case.
“That was what I saw and we planned against that. Psychologically, the attitude was different and we were more determined to win than Gambia.
The defeat contributed to the Satellites third-place finish in Group C, and they snuck into the quarter-finals as one of two best third-placed teams at the championship.
Ghana now await the winners of the second semi-final fixture between Tunisia and Uganda for a showdown in the final on Saturday.
Coach Zito made one change to Ghana s starting set-up, bringing back Mohammed Sulemana into the team in place of Matthew Anim Cudjoe.
Tournament joint-scorer Modou Bojang, who has two goals to his name, headlined Gambia s first XI.
After Ghana and Abdul Fatawu Issahaku saw a penalty shout in the sixth minute ignored, the midfielder fired a second attempt 10 minutes later but his shot was saved by Gambia goalkeeper Lamin Saidy.
Like I said before the game, every team that plays Ghana comes into the game to fight hard for a win. We take nothing from Gambia, they came out to win the game and took advantage of their chances, Zito said after the game, as reported by Ghanafa.org. We didn’t get the result we wanted but qualification to the next round is key because we have another opportunity to correct our mistakes. We have not lost hope because finishing third does not mean we can’t achieve our ultimate targets.
Ghana opened the scoring in Monday s game through Abdul Fatawu Issahaku but Kajally Drammeh and Lamarana Jallow hit back for Gambia to turn the score around.