Deputy Black Stars captain Andre Ayew revealed the team struggled in the second half of the game against Ethiopia following the poor state of the pitch.

Ghana beat the Walias of Ethiopia 2-0 on Sunday to enhance their qualification chances for AFCON 2019.

But, after a good first half display that saw Jordan Ayew score twice in 30 minutes, the team had to stay back and soak in waves of pressure from the Eastern Africans.

Ayew, who led the side in place of Asamoah Gyan disclosed the nature of the pitch did not help their style of play.

"The pitch was difficult to play on, we knew that at the start of the game that due to our coach's tactics, we needed to score a goal in the first 30 minutes and we did our best to do that and we got the second after a counter attack," he said after the game.

"I think it affected our play, Ghana is a team who like to posses and play football but the pitch was bad so we had to show maturity and experience."

"When you get to this level, what is important is, we needed the three points to qualify for AFCON and that is what we did."

Ghana leapfrogs Ethiopia to second place with six points after three games, just a point behind Kenya who they will play in Kumasi in the final qualifier.