[ 2015-02-18 ]

ppiah still savours Afcon participation
The English-born striker who made his Ghana debut
at the Nations Cup still cannot understand why the
Black Stars lost the final

Cambridge United loanee Kwesi Appiah has spoken
about the just ended Africa Cup of Nations
tournament in Equatorial Guinea where he helped
the Black Stars to place second.

Appiah who is owned by Crystal Palace won the fair
play award of the tournament as Ghana lost to old
foes Ivory Coast in the finals.

“It was pretty surreal, to be honest," said
Appiah in the Cambridge News. "It was a dream of
mine to play for Ghana, so having gone to an
Africa Cup of Nations with the squad is
unbelievable.

"Once I got out there it started to sink in, but
to start with it was a bit like, 'wow, this is
happening'.

"It wasn't my team-mates that it took a while to
get used to, it was more the condition of the
pitches that was the initial problem. I had to
adjust to the weather conditions, but the players
were all cool and to play with quality players
makes life easier.

“It couldn't have gone much better for me. I
made my debut against South Africa and then
started and scored in the quarter-final, so it was
massive.”

"Before all the trouble you could feel it was
different to the other games," said Appiah. "It
was against the hosts and you could feel the
different intensity from the beginning.

"We didn't really make much of it (the crowd
trouble) at the time in terms of disturbing our
game. It was more afterwards that you realised
what had happened and that it was more serious
than you'd thought, but at the time we had to
focus on our game.

"I made my contribution in the semi-final and we
got through to the final, which was wicked.

"The excitement started as soon as we finished the
semi-final, and playing against Ivory Coast made
it an even bigger occasion because of the talented
players they've got."

He added: “It's taken a while to accept we lost
and got the silver medal – the satisfaction
wasn't there straight away because you've lost a
final and you're annoyed you've not got the gold.

"Once it sinks in, you think about how far you've
come and the final was a tight game. Losing on
penalties was disappointing, but that's football."

Source -

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