The senior national team, the Black Stars of Ghana, will face Ethiopia in a tricky encounter at the Cape Coast sports stadium this evening. A perfect start for the stars will open the doors for a fourth qualification to the global showpiece in Qatar next year.
Ahead of the game, the Sports Minister pledged the government’s support for the team, urging the players to make the country proud. Also, the President of the GFA, Kurt Okraku, admonished the team to play as a unit to ensure that it picks all three points in the opening game.
‘’It won’t only take my effort, your effort or the effort of the Technical team to take us to the promise land – But our collective effort”.
Kurt Okraku
Meanwhile, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) has approved Ghana’s request to admit spectators into the stadium. The Ghana Football Association (GFA) earlier requested 25% attendance in the stadium. Instead, CAF allowed GFA to admit 2,250 spectators for the game. The game will start at 7:00 pm at the Cape Coast Sports stadium.
Previous world cup Appearances
After making three successive appearances in the 2006, 2010, and the 2014, Ghana missed out in the 2018 edition in Russia. The genesis of their inability to secure the ticket was a poor start against the Cranes of Uganda.
With hopes high for a fourth consecutive qualification, the Stars failed to shine on the day, playing a goalless draw against the Cranes at the Tamale Sports Stadium.
A 2-0 defeat against eventual group leaders, Egypt, slimed their chances of booking a ticket. Ultimately, their hopes were dashed after another tragic draw against Congo in Kumasi.
Meanwhile, an impressive 5-1 away win against the Congolese was not enough as the Stars were again pulled back by a 1-1 draw against the Pharaohs at home.
The stars won just once, drew 4 times and lost a game, amassing just 7 points out of a possible 18 to finish third in Group E. With this in mind, Coach Charles Akonnor has a huge task of picking all three points against the Ethiopians.
Current form of the Black Stars
Despite securing qualification for the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon next year, the performance of the team has not been consistent. As such, the bliss that normally characterized a typical Black Star game is currently lacking.
Prior to the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, the Black Stars played two friendly matches against Morocco and Côte d’Ivoire. The Stars lost by a goal to nil against the Atlas Lions before settling for a stalemate against the Elephants.
After today’s encounter, the Stars will travel to Johannesburg to face the Bafana Bafana of South Africa on Tuesday in a possible Group G decider.
As crucial as the game is, Ghana will lose most of its star players after the UK failed to grant FIFA’s request to allow UK-based players to play in certain countries.
These are countries that the UK has listed on its red-list as COVID-19 hot spots. Unfortunately for Ghana, South Africa is on the UK’s red-list of countries. This means that Daniel Amartey, Jordan Ayew, Tariqe Fosu-Henry, Baba Rahman and Andy Yiadom will all miss Tuesday’s game.
Other curial games
Elsewhere, South Africa will play guests to the Warriors of Zimbabwe in an all-Southern African encounter earlier today. Also in action today are two West African giants Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire, locking horns with Liberia and Mozambique respectively. Will it be a memorable day for West African football?
Yesterday was a special day for the North Africans, as current African Champions, the Desert Foxes of Algeria, trashed Djibouti by 8 goals to nothing. Islam Slimani scored 4 times to thump his authority on the visitors.
Also, the Atlas Lions of Morocco recorded a comfortable 2-0 home win against Sudan. Meanwhile, Egypt and Libya have all made perfect starts in the qualifiers with wins in their respective games.
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