Kwesi Appiah anticipates stern AFCON 2019 qualifiers

Ghana coach Kwesi Appiah has reckoned that qualifying for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations will not come cheap.

The four time Africa champions have been drawn alongside Sierra Leone, Kenya and Ethiopia in Group for biennial competition.

And despite starting the qualifying rounds with an impressive 5-0 thumping over the Walias of Ethiopia at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium, Ghana's coach Kwesi Appiah says his side face an uphill task to book a ticket to the competition due to the fast development of the game on the continent.

"The qualifiers will not be easy because for so many years I have kept saying that football has come off age and now there is no country you can underrate. Al the countries are doing so well in football and for that reason it's very important we make sure we get a formidable squad, and when I say a formidable squad it means more variety of players to pick from," the 57-year-old stated in the wake of the team's 3-0 win over Saudi Arabia.

"Typical example was before our game against Uganda, where we had five injuries from the team that we selected and in this situation if I didn't know the crop of players to pick from then, the whole nation would have been in problems, and for that reason we're going to tackle each game as it comes but we'll make sure we always parade a very strong team to get a win in the subsequent games in the qualifiers."