Chris Hughton hails two-goal hero Mohammed Kudus despite Ghana stalemate

While his namesake Mohammed Salah went off clutching his hamstring before halftime, the West Ham United attacker returned to The Black Stars line-up and made an immediate impact by scoring twice.

Hughton sang the 23-year-old’s praises when asked specifically about a player who’d sat out the opener against Cape Verde due to a niggling injury.

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"I think what we saw of Mohammed Kudus is a continuation of what people in England have seen of his club form. So, we are lucky at the moment we have a player, we know he's been out for some three weeks but this is a player that's in really good form for his club team. We were fortunate enough that he was able to continue that today," Hughton said.

Ghana will need more of the same from their talisman with the quick turnaround of games when they face Mozambique on Monday in their final Group B fixture.

They have to win it to have any chance of staying in the tournament after what Hughton described as a display worthy of three points against Egypt but were unfortunately forced to share the spoils.

"A far better performance than our last performance which is what we wanted for the players and we knew the only way that we could get a win today was to make sure that our levels were that much higher and I thought they were that much higher. I thought that was a game that we deserved to win," Hughton added.

Hughton arrived in Ghana first as a technical advisor in February 2022, but a year later was appointed the head coach.

In his books, the pulsating draw against The Pharaohs on Thursday was the best yet.

"Yes, I think because of the opposition, we know the strength of Egypt and them being one of the big favourites to win. I think probably in my time here, I would say yes, this is probably the best performance."