Though they had a lot of shots form outside the box to Italy’s goal, they did never put a problem to Gianluigi Buffon. This means they should really put their shots a lot more to the target, says Ghana captain Stephen Appiah.

“It’s true we had a lot of shots against Italy from far out so if that’s the case against Czech Republic then we want to be more accurate,” added Ghana’s No.10. “Though a defence-splitting pass is not that easy against Italy, it’s also up to our forwards to move about and make the runs to pull the back four apart.”

Captaining his country on their competition debut against Italy - the country where Appiah spent a number of years playing for Parma, Brescia and Juventus before his move to Fenerbahce in Turkey - was always going to be an emotional occasion for the midfielder.

“We are a country with a population of around 20 million so for me to be out there facing some old friends as skipper was truly a fantastic experience,” he said, breaking into a smile. “In the match we were a bit innocent and lost possession in crucial areas. We now have to learn from our mistakes in order to qualify.”

Appiah aknowledges the power of the Czech players but doesn’t just surrneder to it.

“They have a strong defence and have been a very good side for a while now, but we have studied the way the Czechs play and we aim to hold them strongly at the start before showing our own game.

“We know all about their midfield with Nedved, (Karel) Poborsky and (Tomas) Rosicky who are all technically gifted and intelligent players but I think ours has no less quality. Sure, it’s just our luck to come up against two of the world’s top goalkeepers in our first two games but at the World Cup you have to beat the best.”

Source: WCoffsite