Head Coach of Asante Kotoko, Mariano Barreto
Head Coach of Kumasi Asante Kotoko, Mariano Barreto has revealed that his side made a huge mistake that contributed to their defeat in the match against Accra Hearts of Oak on Sunday on matchday 31 of the Ghana Premier League.
The Reds succumbed to a 1-0 defeat at the hands of the Phobians thanks to Daniel Afriyie Barnieh, who scored the only goal in the game.
Prior to the match, both sides were tied to 56 points but the victory for Hearts of Oak now leaves the Porcupines short of three points from the league leaders.
Reacting to the loss, Kotoko’s coach blamed his player for failing to mark Daniel Afriyie Barnieh who was left alone in the box.
According to him, his red army had studied the tactics of the Phobians coming into Sunday’s game and it was unfortunate that they lost in such a tough game.
“Everybody saw it was a very tough match, most of the people who saw this match, I think appreciate it,” Barreto said at the post-match presser attended by GhanaWeb.
He added, “We studied Hearts, they know our best players. In the first 45 minutes, no team had the chance to score because we were good in our transitions, our players did very well.”
Barreto stated, “In the second half, our target was to win the game and we started well but we made a very huge mistake.
“Mistakes like someone forgetting to mark are very dangerous with the kind of players Hearts have,” he said.
Barreto believed that the results would have been different if his red army had made good use of the chances they had in the game.
He said, “They’re very speedy and skillful, so they scored and we reacted. The best chance of it all was when Okra didn’t score. In the end, they scored we didn’t score.”
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