Veteran Ghanaian coach Joseph Emmanuel 'JE' Sarpong believes Ghana need to turn to prayers to stand a chance of winning a major trophy.

The West Africans have endured a series near misses in the final of recent major international tournaments, the latest being a penalty shoot-out defeat to hosts Senegal in the climax of the Wafu Cup of Nations on Sunday.

"As for penalties, it could be anybody’s game so I won’t blame the team and mistakes are bound to happen," Sarpong told Akoma FM.

“We need prayers if we want to win trophies because we have done everything but the trophies are still not coming so the only remedy is prayers."

Ghana's best appearance at the Fifa World Cup ended in a quarter-final shoot-out defeat to Uruguay in 2010.

In 2014, the home-based Black Stars also lost the final of the African Nations Championship (Chan) to Libya.

The West Africans' last berth in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) also ended in disappointment after another round of penalties. That was in 2015, 33 years after the Black Stars won their last Afcon title.