{"id":246757,"date":"2026-04-08T18:20:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:20:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportsworldghana.com\/?p=246757"},"modified":"2026-04-08T18:20:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T18:20:41","slug":"michael-essien-calls-afcon-miss-big-disappointment-but-urges-black-stars-to-move-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/learn.oshtree.org\/b-class\/2026\/04\/08\/michael-essien-calls-afcon-miss-big-disappointment-but-urges-black-stars-to-move-on\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Essien calls AFCON miss \u201cbig disappointment\u201d but urges Black Stars to move on"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Former Michael Essien has described the Ghana national football team\u2019 failure to qualify for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations as a major setback, while urging the team to quickly move on and focus on the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ghana endured a disappointing qualifying campaign, finishing bottom of their group after six matches without a win. The Black Stars recorded three draws and three defeats, resulting in a shock early exit from the tournament set to be hosted in Morocco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Reflecting on the disappointment, Essien admitted the pain of the outcome but stressed the importance of resilience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cOf course it was a big disappointment, but in football, you have to move on from that,\u201d he told FIFA.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cThe good thing in football is you always have the next game to make things right,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Despite that setback, the Black Stars have since bounced back by securing qualification for the 2026 FIFA World Cup in North America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Ghana will be making their fifth appearance at the global tournament and have been drawn in a tough Group L alongside England national football team, Croatia national football team, and Panama national football team.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Black Stars will begin their World Cup campaign against Panama on June 17, before facing England on June 23, and concluding the group stage against Croatia on June 27.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Former Michael Essien has described the Ghana national football team\u2019 failure to qualify for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":246758,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_kadence_starter_templates_imported_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[14,23,177],"class_list":["post-246757","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-stories","tag-ghana-football","tag-ghana-premier-league","tag-michael-essien"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.oshtree.org\/b-class\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.oshtree.org\/b-class\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.oshtree.org\/b-class\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.oshtree.org\/b-class\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.oshtree.org\/b-class\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246757"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/learn.oshtree.org\/b-class\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.oshtree.org\/b-class\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/246758"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/learn.oshtree.org\/b-class\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.oshtree.org\/b-class\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246757"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/learn.oshtree.org\/b-class\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}