BOSTON, June 22 (Xinhua) -- Ghana coach Carlos Queiroz said on Monday that taking on strong opponents like England at the World Cup is "the easiest kind of match to prepare for".
"When you're about to play a match against England, against France or Germany, you don't need to say anything to the players. They're fully motivated, they're excited," said Queiroz, whose side will play England in their second Group L match in Boston on Tuesday.
"This is the easiest type of game to approach, because everybody is completely alert, everybody wants to perform well, everybody wants to display their own football. What we have to do in this type of game is sometimes actually to moderate their enthusiasm, to weather it," he added.
The 73-year-old Portuguese is at his fifth World Cup and his first with Ghana.
"I no longer remember how many games actually, but what it means for me is something to be proud of," he said.
"But I don't want to settle for that. I want to fight for a sixth World Cup, for a seventh World Cup, with all my motivation and all my energy," he said.
"I want more, I want to go further," added the coach. "Ghana's team is mentally very strong, very explosive, very determined, and it has great quality. The challenge we have ahead of us tomorrow will be to stick together, to be a team, to attack as a team, to defend as a team."
The former Real Madrid boss led Iran at the past three World Cups, suffering a 6-2 defeat by England in the group stage of the 2022 tournament in Qatar.
"In football, four years is like a century, so I don't even remember where that was," said Queiroz. "I was not defeated. In football, we never lose. We win or we learn. We learned a couple of lessons that day."
Ghana beat Panama 1-0 in their World Cup opener, while England defeated Croatia 4-2 in its first Group L match.
"We know that England has its strengths; we all have our own qualities as well," said Queiroz. "The most important thing is that we don't lose our own identity, because we want to get points in order to reach the next phase of qualification."
"We know how England plays. They have excellent players, they have vast experience in the Premier League, they have great intensity. But we also know how we can control those kinds of situations, and of course this is what we will be trying to do tomorrow on the pitch," he said.
