Jerome Opoku urges Ghana to learn from World Cup exit and focus on future

Black Stars defender Jerome Opoku says Ghana will use the lessons from their FIFA World Cup exit to improve as attention turns to the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

Ghana's campaign ended in the Round of 32 following a 1-0 defeat to Colombia at Kansas City Stadium, where Jhon Arias scored the only goal of the match in the 14th minute.

Speaking to the media, Opoku admitted the Black Stars fell short of their objective but congratulated Colombia for advancing to the next round.

"I think I gave the team what was needed at every moment," the Istanbul Basaksehir defender said.

"They won the game 1-0, so that's really it. The game plan was to win. There's not much I can say. Colombia have done that. We didn't, so congratulations to Colombia."

Opoku also addressed the disruption caused by Marvin Senaya's early injury, which forced Alidu Seidu into the backline.

"Obviously, you need to be ready. Alidu is a great player. Marvin is too. It was unfortunate, Marvin's injury. We just need to look back at it and see where we can improve," he said.

The centre-back believes Ghana showed enough quality throughout the tournament but admitted the squad had hoped to make a deeper run while continuing to demonstrate the progress of African football on the world stage.

"It's always great to get out of the group and prove to people that African football is doing well. Obviously, we wanted to go further. We didn't just want to leave it at the Round of 32. We wanted to reach the Round of 16, the quarter-finals and keep being competitive."

Despite the disappointment, Opoku insisted the team's preparation and mentality before facing Colombia were positive.

"We've got great talents. We're doing well. I think we can do better and we always want to do better. The coach gave us a good team talk and we had a good build-up. Sometimes in football things don't go your way, but I thought the approach from the coach and the boys was good."

Ghana completed the tournament with one win, one draw and two defeats. The Black Stars will now regroup ahead of the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in September as they look to respond positively to their World Cup disappointment.

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