Black Stars midfielder Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu has said the team has garnered enough experience and lessons from their opening Africa Cup of Nations game with Uganda ahead of their second encounter with Mali on Saturday.

The Black Stars needed a first half penalty from deputy skipper Andre Ayew to pick up all three points against Uganda, a result that has put the team in first place ahead of Egypt and Mali who have a point each, with the Cranes of Uganda at the bottom of the Group D table.

Speaking to Class Sports, the Udinese midfielder said: “It was a very tough game for us, especially in the second half. The pitch was not in the best of conditions, but that is not an excuse. You can clearly see that their coach introduced a lot of strikers in the second half which piled the pressure on our defence but we managed to hold on to get the result, which is the most important thing. We have picked up the positives from the game and hope to rectify the mistakes we made in the second half. That should inure to the benefit of the team against Mali.”