Ghana suffered a 2-0 defeat by Mexico in Sunday’s international friendly at the Bank of America Stadium in Charlotte, USA.
A much-changed Black Stars side was unable to withstand the might of El Tri, who cruised to a 2-0 victory following second-half goals from Hirving Lozano and Uriel Antuna.
Despite naming a decent team for Sunday morning’s encounter, Chris Hughton still left out some of his trusted lieutenants.
The Ghana coach was forced to pick an inexperienced backline, with Salisu Mohammed, Alexander Djiku, Daniel Amartey and Tariq Lamptey all ruled out due to injury.
In the absence of the aforementioned, Stephan Ambrosius, Joseph Aidoo and Nicholas Opoku started in a three-back while Lawrence Ati Zigi was in post.
Kingsley Schindler and Gideon Mensah played as wing-backs and Elisha Owusu partnered the returning Thomas Partey in midfield.
Mohammed Kudus and Joseph Paintsil provided width on the flanks, with Antoine Semenyo also starting as the main striker.
The Black Stars looked disjointed for large spells but managed to keep their opponents at bay in the first half, while creating some half-chances along the way.
However, all their hard work unraveled early in the second half when Lozano cut in from the left to beat Ati Zigi at his near post.
Hughton introduced Jordan Ayew, Inaki Williams, Ernest Numah and Abdul Salis Samed in the second half, but these substitutions had very little impact.
Rather, Mexico killed off any hopes of a comeback in the 72nd minute, Antuna racing away from Ghana’s defenders before slotting past the onrushing Zigi to make it 2-0.
The defeat to El Tri is the first suffered by Hughton since he replaced Otto Addo as coach of the Black Stars after the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
Ghana meets USA on Tuesday in a crunch encounter with both sides aiming to return to winning ways after the latter’s 3-1 defeat against Germany.
