The Black Stars have qualified for every single world cup since making our debut in 2006, often cruising through qualifying – but never have we come closer to missing a World Cup than this qualifying cycle – considering how things stood by the end of last year.
A draw with Uganda and a loss to Egypt left the Stars with just a point from the first two games of qualifying and five whole points behind group leaders Egypt, who looked unstoppable.
Ghana needed the Pharaohs to drop points in any of their last four games, but it came sooner than expected after Egypt’s 1-0 loss to Uganda on Thursday.
With knowledge of that result, Ghana now faces Congo Brazaville in Kumasi today needing nothing less than a win to get back into contention in qualifying Group E.
The Congolese are the weakest team in the group and failure to pick up a result would certainly spell the end of Ghana’s qualifying hopes for Russia.
Kwesi Appiah, who takes charge of the first world cup qualifier of his second spell in charge, has remained confident Ghana can qualify and Thursday’s result provides the break he needs and its now down to his team to respond in the best possible way.
Captain Gyan is available which is a huge boost, as is vice skipper Andre Ayew.
Ghana takes on Congo in another must win tie on Tuesday in the return leg in Brazaville.
Today’s game kicks off at 1530 GMT. According to this prophet, Ghana would win by 2-0.