The Black Stars, managed by Chris Hughton, suffered a surprise 2-1 defeat to Cape Verde in their opening Group B game earliest this week – a game in which Ayew set up his side’s goal with a precise set-piece delivery.
All is far from lost, however, with the top two sides in each of the six groups – plus the four best third-placed sides – advancing from the first round of matches.
Next up, however, sees Ayew and Ghana face 2021 finalists Egypt, who boast Premier League top scorer Mo Salah among their attacking threats; that match takes place in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, tonight (KO: 20:00 GMT, shown live on Sky Sports).
"[Today] is going to be a tough game,” Ayew told his pre-match press conference. “The boys are ready.
“We put ourselves in this difficult situation, so we need to come out of it and, you know, you never know in football.
"So we're ready. We'll give our best, we'll fight, we'll represent Ghana as well as we can, put in a better performance as a team and hopefully everyone will be happy.
“It is a big day, and we know what it means to Ghanaians and us, the players, personally. We want to perform in this tournament. We didn’t come just to visit Abidjan; we came to perform.
“We have to be aggressive in every department of the game. I believe we will be fine and are really working hard, and hopefully it will be a good day for Ghana.”
As for his side’s mentality heading into the game, Ayew added: “I don’t agree that we lack commitment. First of all, it is bread and butter for everyone who plays football, and sometimes things go well or badly. We need to do more, and we know that.
"[In our first game] we lacked concentration at key moments and they [Cape Verde] scored sloppy goals. As a team, we need to bounce back quickly. We can't keep saying it's a young team; we've been together for two, three or four years now.
"We have two more games left, and we must stay positive. We'll take it one game at a time and see how it goes.
“We don’t have a choice now, we need to do it the hard way and see the outcome.”
Match Details
- Ghana v Egypt
- Thursday, 18th January
- 20:00 GMT
- Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium, Abidjan
- Live on Sky Sports