F
ormer Black Stars striker, Asamoah Gyan, has admitted that next month’s Qatar 2022 World Cup playoffs between Ghana and Nigeria next month could go either way.
The two West African giants face off in a two-legged game to battle for one of the five slots available in Africa with Ghana playing host to Nigeria on March 24 in Cape Coast with the return leg scheduled for Abuja three days later.
Gyan explained the tie is difficult to predict, because of the long-standing rivalry between the two West African countries.
Gyan who scored the winner for the Black Stars who defeated the Eagles 1-0 in a semi-final clash at the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations in Angola said, “Ghana and Nigeria are rivals, you cannot predict,” he told TV3.
“Anybody can win, so we just have to stay focused and do what they have to do on the field.”
The Eagles emerged from a group comprising themselves, Liberia, Cape Verde and Central African Republic to be eligible for the play-offs, while the Black Stars prevailed over South Africa 1-0 on the final day in an explosive and controversial duel in Cape Coast.
Ethiopia and Zimbabwe were the other teams in the pool.
Nigeria have played against Ghana more than any other country in the world in football, with a total of 57 senior matches between both countries in 71 years. Ghana have won 19 of those clashes with Nigeria winning 16, and 19 drawn.
Ghana have been bundled out of the ongoing 33rd Africa Cup of Nations, earning only one point in three matches and losing to Morocco and Comoros, while scoring only three goals and conceding five. Nigeria is the only country to make a clean sweep of the stakes in the group phase, winning all three matches, scoring six goals and conceding one, and squares up with Tunisia in a Round of 16 match in Garoua on Sunday.
In the past, Nigeria and Ghana have clashed in qualifying campaigns for the 1962, 1970, 1974 and 2002 World Cup finals. In the most recent, Ghana and Nigeria stalemated 0-0 in Accra and the Eagles won 3-0 in Port Harcourt to qualify for the 2002 finals in Korea/Japan.
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