Without doubt, battles between Nigeria and Ghana are usually fierce ones and today’s encounter between both sides at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja will not be different as they vie for one of the five African tickets for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.
The Super Eagles host the Black Stars in the second leg of the final play-off for the World Cup, after the first leg ended 0-0 at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi on Friday, leaving this fixture evenly poised as both West African archrivals battle for a place at the biggest football showpiece in the world.
A tough challenge awaits Austin Eguavoen’s side, as they hope to qualify for a seventh appearance at the Mundial.
The 60,000-capacity Abuja stadium will be filled up for the mouth-watering clash after the Confederation of African Football gave approval to the Nigeria Football Federation to have full capacity.
The Eagles will hope to replicate the 2001 feat, when they held Ghana 0-0 in Accra before beating the Black Stars 3-0 in Port Harcourt courtesy of a first-half brace from Tijani Babangida plus a strike from Victor Agali to reach the 2002 edition in Korea/Japan.
However, there are growing concerns among some Nigerians, as the Eagles take on their long-time rivals in Abuja.
The three-time African champions have home support in Abuja, but arguably not the advantage, with Ghana knowing how valuable an away goal could be. They’ll also be emboldened by their performance in the midfield, where a trio of Thomas Partey, Iddrisu Baba and Mohammed Kudus impressed against Nigeria’s pair.
Without injured Wilfred Ndidi, the Super Eagles are missing arguably their most influential player, and, despite his promise, FC Lorient’s Innocent Bonke is a far inferior version of the Leicester City man. A combination of Ndidi’s absence and Ghana’s extra man in midfield completed ceded initiative to the Black Stars, and if Augustine Eguavoen doesn’t correct his errors in the return leg, then Nigeria could be Africa’s most high-profile World Cup absentee.
The Eagles are winless in their last six meetings with Ghana across (D3, L3) since a 1-0 victory in the AFCON back in 2006 – although each of the last three meetings ended goalless.
They have lost just one of their last 43 World Cup qualifiers (W28 D14), with that defeat coming against Central African Republic in qualifying for the 2022 World Cup.
Ghana on their part are winless in their last five games across all competitions (D2 L3) since a 1-0 victory against South Africa in the current World Cup qualifying campaign.
The Black Stars have also lost just one of their last 11 World Cup qualifiers (W5 D5), conceding just six goals in total during this period and never more than once in a game.
