WAFU Cup: Ghana set for revenge against Nigeria

By Edward Ejoh/Prince Narkortu Teye

Black Satellites of Ghana boss Abdul Karim Zito looks ahead to their opening match of the West Africa Football Union (WAFU)B competition on Wednesday against the Flying Eagles of Nigeria who needs an outright win against their West African neighbour.

Ghana look set to settle score as they take on arch rivals Nigeria in their opening game of the 2020 Wafu B Cup of Nations in Republic of Benin, says head coach Abdul Karim Zito.

The Black Satellites are set to face the Flying Eagles at Stade de Gaules in Porto Novo at the sub-regional championship.

While Ghana drew a bye on match day one of Group B’s schedule of fixtures due to the group consisting of only three teams, Nigeria and Cote d’Ivoire settled for a 1-1 draw.

At their last meeting at the tournament two years ago, Ghana were handed a 4-2 defeat by Nigeria.

“There is a big rivalry between Ghana and Nigeria. So at all costs, we should make amendments [for the last defeat],” Zito told Footballmadeinghana.

“In football sometimes people say win, lose or draw. It’s not about drawing, its winning, drawing or making amendments. We will have the opportunities to make amendments. Ghana have another opportunity to make amendments from the first 4-2 [defeat] they gave us.

“[Nigeria] is a team that is not tactically sound compared to Cote D’Ivoire but it [our chances] all depends on the team that we are going to play against. Maybe their motivation factor against Cote D’Ivoire will not be the same against Ghana.

“I will not take it [their threat] the way I saw it over there [against Cote d’Ivoire] but rather I will also build my own self against what I saw. We need a win out of two matches just to make it to the semi-final.”

The Wafu B Championship serves as qualifiers for the 2021 Africa U20 Cup of Nations, with the two finalists in Benin securing participation tickets for the continental gathering.

The African event will, in turn, serve as qualifiers for the 2020 Fifa U20 World Cup, the four semi-finalists are set to represent the continent at the global gathering in Indonesia.

“We need Ghanaians to pray for us and keep supporting us,” Ghana captain Daniel Afriyie said.

Meanwhile Flying Eagles Coach Ladan Bosso has promised to correct the mistakes in their first match against the junior Elephants of Cote de’ voire by securing a win for Nigeria on Wednesday against the Black Satellites of Ghana

The seven time African champions need to put up a superlative performance against their arch rivals  the Black Satellites of Ghana by securing victory.