Black Stars forward Brandon Thomas-Asante says Ghana remain confident that opponents fear their counter-attacking threat, even in defensive situations, following their 2–1 defeat to Croatia.

Speaking after Saturday’s Group L match at Lincoln Financial Field, Thomas-Asante said Ghana’s squad is built to hurt teams in transition as well as in possession.

“We know that there’s so much talent in the squad and we want to be able to impose that on our opposition,” he said.

“But even in the games where we might have been seen as more defensive, I think there’s a lot of fear from other teams of what we do on the counter. That’s not to be slept on because there is a very attacking threat, even in those defensive phases for the transition.”

Ghana finished third in Group L with four points from a win, a draw and a defeat, and progressed to the Round of 32, where they will face Colombia on July 4.

Thomas-Asante said the team’s focus has always been on winning matches rather than simply qualifying.

“The overall feeling was that we want to go and win the game and to make a statement to our fans at home that we want to make a new dawn of really going for it in tournaments and being that powerhouse that we know that we are,” he said.

“We’re definitely disappointed that we didn’t win today, but we know we have that feeling inside to go and progress.”