Grant praises Ghana mentality after testing semi-final

Reuters/MalaboGhana coach Avram Grant has praised his team’s fortitude following their performance in the African Nations Cup semi-final against hosts Equatorial Guinea which was disrupted by fan violence. Grant’s side won 3-0 to book a spot in the final where they will play Herve Renard’s Ivory Coast. “Before the tournament we had a good training camp in Spain,” Grant told reporters yesterday. “I spoke a lot to the players about mentality. One of the things that is important in sports and in life as well, is to recover after you lost a game. “We spoke about what would happen if we win because we were in a tough group. They called our group the group of death, I call it the group of living.” The game was overshadowed by a long delay as the home fans hurled plastic bottles and other projectiles on to the pitch. Riot police intervened and a security helicopter flew over the stadium to disperse home fans. “It’s vital to show a strong mentality,” Grant added. “We lost the first game, we won the second in the last minute. The third game we had to win, we came back to win 2-1. Every game we’re playing better football and we’re scoring a lot of goals. “For two years, I lectured around the world with people asking me what to do when you lose. “This is part of life, you need to look for a solution to pick yourselves up. I was looking for this from players and they did it well, they picked themselves up and they showed Ghana that they could count on them.”