Atsu wants Black Stars to remain focused

Christian Atsu says the Ghana team is focused and not carried away by their Afcon 2015 finale feat.

The Chelsea winger reveals the target of doing the main business in Sunday’s finals over Ivory Coast before thinking of celebration.

The Black Stars took a cautious approach to the tournament and diligently eased past hosts Equatorial Guinea 3-0 in a gruelling semifinal which was later marred by crowd troubles in Malabo.

The crowd incidents began after Gabonese referee whistled and pointed to the spot following a clip by Equatorial Guinea goalkeeper Felipe Ovono on attacker Kwesi Appiah.

Jordan Ayew converted the spot kick to give Ghana a 1-0 lead in the 42nd minute before Mubarak Wakaso benefited from a sweet counter-attack to slot home the second in the first half added time. In the 74th minute, stand-in captain Andre Ayew scored his third of the tournament and Ghana’s on the night.

The angry home fans began attacking the travelling Ghana fans with projectiles which forced riot police to evacuate the visitors from the stadium fans. The match had to be stopped from the 82nd minute for over 30 minutes before sanity prevailed.

“The home crowd was intimidating but it's normal in football so we had to forget them," Atsu told SuperSport TV in a post-match interview.

“I think we have learnt a lot from this game and I think the next game we will not repeat them. We are very happy that at the end of the day we won and qualified for the final.”

“This is not the time to celebrate. We are going to our hotel to rest and concentrate on our next game which is the final. We can celebrate after the final because that's just what we so much want to do but not now,” he added.

Four-time winners Ghana will play in their 9th Afcon final against Ivory Coast in Bata on Sunday – a repeat of the 92 final which the Ivorians won on penalties.