Former Black Stars player, Opoku Nti, insists Ghana must beat Nigeria in the 2022 Qatar World Cup play-offs regardless of the issues surrounding the team.
Both teams will battle for a slot in the African qualifiers in March.
The Black Stars had an underwhelming outing at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, winning none of their Group F matches and also surprisingly losing 3-2 to Comoros in their last group game.
Head coach Milovan Rajevac was sacked Wednesday by the Ghana Football Federation following the team’s poor AFCON display.
With a slot for the World Cup in Qatar up for grabs in March, a new manager is expected to be named before their crucial play-offs against Nigeria.
According to ghanaweb.com, Opoku, who had 45 caps for the Black Stars, says winning the play-offs against their eternal rivals is non-negotiable and suggested that the country employed former coach Kwesi Appiah to replace Rajevac.
Appiah had managed the Black Stars on two previous occasions, between 2012 and 2014 and 2017 and 2019.
“For me, as it stands we don’t have time,” Opoku Nti said in an interview with Angel FM.
“Who knows the current Black Stars players well? I think we need to bring Kwesi Appiah. For this session, we need to bring Kwesi Appiah because he has a rich history with the national team till now. He can lead us against Nigeria, then afterwards we think about the way forward
“We need Appiah for the Nigeria game, after that we open in for applications.
“By all means, our focus should be qualifying against Nigeria. We have to beat Nigeria.”
Appiah led Ghana to a third World Cup appearance in 2014 but got sacked after the team failed to progress beyond the group stage.
He was appointed for a second spell in 2017 but shown the exit door again in January 2020, this after failing to steer the Black Stars beyond the round of 16 at the AFCON in 2019 in Egypt.
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