Milovan Rajevac has hailed Ghana’s crucial win at the African Nations Cup over Burkina Faso that ensured that the four-time champions avoided an early round exit in Group B.

The group had been reduced to three teams due to the withdrawal of Togo and Ghana needed a win to progress to the final eight of the competition after opening 3-1 loss to Ivory Coast.

Rajevac made four changes from the side that fell to Ivory Coast as the injury situation showed no sign of slowing down.

Ghana, who have been unlucky with injuries leading to player pulls outs prior to the start of the competition and suffered a major pre-match blow with Michael Essien having to pull out with a right knee injury picked up in training on Sunday – though he was on hand to watch, from the stands.

But Andre Ayew’s 30th minute header salvaged Ghana’s campaign as the Black Stars secured the decisive winner to go through to the next round.

Rajevac said: “This was a very important game for our team – psychologically it was tough.

“It was a competitive match, Burkina Faso played more offensively than they had against Ivory Coast. They were capable of scoring, especially from set pieces.

“It was hard with the weather conditions and the pitch was far from perfect.

“In the second half they attacked more which gave us the chance to counter attack but we lacked concentration in our finishing.”

Source: Ghanafa.org