Pre-Match Quotes - Mali Vs Ghana

Bashir Hayford (Head Coach, Ghana)

Morale in our camp is very high. The (players) have all realized the importance of the second match and solemnly they are all meditating as to how they will battle this one favourably and win at the end of it all. The players have all realized their minor mistakes they committed in the game against Algeria.

We were all here when the second match was played between Cameroon and Mali and they watched the two opponents. We are taking them one after the other. After tomorrow, then we think about Friday's match.

It is not beyond my girls and they are prepared to battle it out and there is no problem at all. Many have said that Cameroon is the best team in this group, but I see it differently. I am the coach of Ghana and my job is to prepare the team for any opposition, so I am not bothered about those comments.

I don't fear any of the remaining seven countries in the competition, irrespective of what the pundits say. Football is not played on paper; it's played on the pitch so the pitch will determine who is better.

Priscilla Okyere (Midfielder, Ghana)

We saw Mali play last Saturday and they are a great team. We watched them play in Cote d'Ivoire during the WAFU tournament. Also, I played against them (Mali) at the last edition in 2016 in Cameroon. We played with them in our last game and it was a similar situation - we needed to beat them to qualify to the next stage. They gave us a tough first half, but after recess we beat them 3-1. Mali is not a threat to Ghana. Looking at the training and everything we have worked on since the last game on Saturday, I believe we have what it takes to beat Mali tomorrow. We created lots of chances but we couldn't score many, but tomorrow will be different because we have worked on that.

They (Mali) are a very difficult side, and if you look at football right now, every country is developing and so has Mali in the last couple of years and we can't underrate them. After the opening matches, we believe we have what it takes to record another win over them.

Our motivation comes from our coach. He inspires us both on and off the field of play and that helps us a lot.

Houssein Saloum (Head Coach, Mali)

The previous game is gone and we have learnt from it. We went back to the drawing board and have been working hard ahead of the next game. The Cameroonians were good but we were fatigued before the game and though we were on top, everything just turned against us.

We have worked on it at training and we are looking forward to the Ghana game. We have learnt our lesson and the game against Ghana will be very tough for us because anything short of a victory and we become the first team to exit the competition and that will not be good for our image. So we know what is at stake and the how to tackle it.

We have so much respect for the Ghana team and expect a tough game. We will give them a good match a sell a great game to the fans and the rest of Africa come tomorrow.

Konte Kani (Defender, Mali)

We will be going all out against Ghana because we know the odds are against us since we lost our first game against Cameroon. It's true the Ghana team is strong and the crowd will be cheering them, but we are prepared for it mentally as a team.

Football is full of surprises and we all saw what happened in the other Group B games. This means that anything can happen in football so we are ready for anything. We have worked on our mistakes and are looking to do much more than we did against Cameroon.

In our previous game we managed to score first but we allow our opponents to come back and eventually got the match winner. All these things are being taken care of by the coach at training so that we don't repeat it against Ghana.

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