Ghana head coach Otto Addo has named a 27-man squad for the 2022 FIFA World Cup playoffs against the Super Eagles of Nigeria, reports Completesports.com.
Crystal Palace forward Jordan Ayew is included in the squad despite testing positive for Covid-19.
Belgium-based duo of Denis Odoi and Elisha Owusu, Montari Kamahene of Ashdod FC in Israel and Dennis Korsah of Hearts of Oak were handed debut call-ups by Addo.
Roma youngster Felix Afena-Gyan is also included in the squad after he failed to make the cut to the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon.
Captain, Andre Ayew, misses out due to suspension.
Ghana will host the first leg at the Baba Yara Sports stadium, Kumasi on Friday before travelling to Abuja for the second leg next week Tuesday.
By Adeboye Amosu
49 Comments
Make dis Jordan Ayew no dash us Coro oooo!
We want a clean double-header, zero-tolerance for any shade of ojoro
No big deal about the list after all. No surprises.
It is clear to me that the reason they didn’t release it on time was because they were undecided about who will be in it and who will be dropped. If they were concealing it for tactical reasons, they wouldn’t have released it now because we still have enough time to prepare.
Why keeping so long to release the list when we actually know the players ghana will bring out. Up up naija
3-5-2 formation
If they deploy 352 formation they beat Nigeria.
Why do you say that?
Formation alone does not win match.
Yeah, exactly, they will want to pack their midfield to stop us playing. If Eguaveon want to win this match he has to go into the match with two different tactics.
There’s no big deal, SE will take every game as final.
I don’t think it had any impact on the Nigerians. They are unfazed by the Ghanian concealing act.
I think the Nigerian team are solidly built to really wonder or panic over the non release of the team names upto the last minutes.
They just want to go to Ghana and beat the hell out of the Ghanaians, simple.
Super eagles stand by team will give this lads good football any day
if Ghana plays a 3-5-2 Nigeria should play a 4-5-1 osinmhen loan striker they will change formation by second half and nigeria can switch use a 4-4-2 and kill the game because with 3-5-2 we can catch them under counter attack with Osinmhen pace and strenght.
I thought the players will descend from the Mars. I never know it will be the same crop of average players we already know, most of whom are bench warmers in their various modest clubs across the world. God bless the Super Eagle, God bless Nigeria. Qatar here we come.
Where is Halland and Mbappe in this list?? Lmao!! Ghana funny die. So if they actually qualify for the WorldCup they will be releasing their squad 3 days to the Mundial?? I hope Nigeria don’t fall to all their antics and take the game on Friday to them because like someone said earlier on another thread if Niger lose to Ghana in Kumasi we should forget about the WorldCup and that will be a massive disaster.
You will lose so forget now
Well we’ll see on Friday. Talk is cheap. You guys are just bragging about results in the 1950s and during our civil war. Since the mid 70s it’s been pretty even. Nigerians know it’s going to be a tough match, but we have the quality to outwit your team. Friday is only next tomorrow. It’s with you guys continue to flood our platform or vanish forever after the game
Nigeria will win both home and away. I was surprised the list came out eventually o.
Where is Halland and Mbappe in this list?? Lmao!! Ghana funny die. So if they actually qualify for the WorldCup they will be releasing their squad 3 days to the Mundial?? I hope Nigeria don’t fall to all their antics and take the game on Friday to them because like someone said earlier on another thread if Niger lose to Ghana in Kumasi we should forget about the WorldCup and that will be a massive disaster. But we have the quality to see this through.
Ghana’s squad is quite decent,good recruitement.
Both sides have equal strength,assessing both teams in the league and club they play for in all honesty i dont think we are better contrary to popular belief.
The squads are balanced.Ghana has strength in central defence.The pairing of Strasbourg’s Djiku and Leicester’s Amartey will be strong for the challenges ahead.Balogun plays in Scotland whereas Ekong who plays in the top 5 league of europe has not kicked any football for over one month,so Ghana is stronger in that department but will have to contend with our fierce strikers.
In the midfield they have Mallorca’s Iddrisu,Arsenal’s Partey and Ajax Kudus,compare to our Brentford’s Onyeka who has played from the bench all year,Etebo of Watford who has played very little in the entire season due to a long-term injury and an in-form Aribo who plays in the Scottish league.Comparing both sides in this department if i must be honest Ghana seems to have a slight edge.
Looking at the full-backs,Ghana has Odoi who plays regularly for Belgian champions club Brugge.We have Yiadom of English championship side Reading in comparison with Nigeria’s Aina who has settled for the bench at Torino and Sanusi who ply his trade for Portuguese giants fc Porto,I would say we have a slight advantage as well in the goalkeeper’s department where our own Okoye has posted terrific performances,we hope that he also transcend’s such performances in the national team.
We hold the ace in the wings and striking department no doubt but they have some very good players too.
In conclusion we are not better going by the squads put out by both managers but we have a better team going by performances in the last Afcon but this is a different situation there’s so much at stake not forgetting the fierce rivalry.
We should remain humble,respect our opponent and not burden ourselves with too much expectations so we are not let down should the super eagles fell short of expectations.
After all its a game.Sometimes underdogs springs surprises a good reason for us to be humble and hope we are fortunate after the two roung of matches.
@Greenturf nice one. But you forgot AFRICAN LAMPARD in your analysis..
And who’s that?@MONKEY POST
@Greenturf don’t tell me you’ve not heard of DANIEL KOFFI…
That dude is hot! 10 GOALS 10 ASSIST!!
BEYERN are coming for him next season..
Yeah remember he scored 10 goals so far in the league from his midfield position.
No wonder you dey always yarn opata, so you be Ghanaian? Now I see.
I agreed with you that we should be humble and reduce high expectations @Greenturf. I pray we pull through this one. I only disagree where u mentioned our bench warmers as if their players are super regulars. We have better players and better team but anything can happen in football. Considering the rivalry between us the match will be a difficult one. Even if we lose God forbid we can still beat them here well. As for me i wont be watching the game the tension will be much to bear.
Guys dr dre has suddenly turn to ghanian overnight in other to support them against Nigeria. If you read his comments quite well u got to notice. So “self made” is the original dr dre. Take it to the bank
@Greenturf you forget Nigeria now possesses the New Koulibaly non other than Calvin Bassey his versatility counts as two defenders in one. he is one defender than Rangers FC can’t leave out he is the first player on their team sheet. and with him alone I think we win in the defending area.
attacking wise we also dominate Ghana with out lethal attackers. the injury to Ndidi is a big blow for Nigeria as that would also have given us the edge in the Midfield department.
All in all it will be an interesting game but Bassey must start LB and Zaidu in RB.
https://twitter.com/RangersReview55/status/1505938312745336842?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet
Calvin Bassey has only been dribbled past 5 times in the League this year.and is their star man in the league this season.
He plays in the Scottish league, even I can play there despite having 2 knee operations already.
Yeah and also was the star man when Rangers FC knocked out 2nd placed Bundesliga giant Borussia Dortmund out of UEFA Europa League.
I disagree with you @Greenturf, that you would even compare SE to the black stars team is puzzling. Yes, we need to remain humble in approaching the game but haba! It is important that we do not give too much respect to the black stars team. It is imperative to have the right mind set to the games (we need the mind set we had against Egypt if we are to defeat the black stars in kumasi)
Afena Gyan who is their best striker is not a starter for Roma, We have Victor Osimhen, one of the hottest young strikers in WORLD football, there is Ighalo, Sadiq Umar who is highly rated in spain, Iheanacho and the wings, goodness gracious! Where we might seem light is in midfield but even that might be deceptive because there is quality there. Onyeka plays in the EPL and there is a reason he is there, Bonke plays his football in a top 5 league and is a regular , Aribo is a regular with rangers who play at the europa league and there is a budding prodigious talent in Amoo, Etebo though might be match rusty but has bags of experience. We should not die before our time, let us not give in to their antics or accept that they are as good as the SE (It is a categorical No! for me).
It would be a keenly contested game but Nigeria should have the day!
@Golden Child,I reiterated a few times our strength over Ghana in the strikers department,I also highlighted our strength in the wings over the black stars but in the absence of Iwobi and Ndidi we are light in the midfield compared to Ghana.Our central defence have good players but one isn’t playing at his club whereas the other has just come back from a long-term injury so in comparison they are much younger and active,Djiku and Amartey plays in the top 5 European leagues.
Sometimes we have to be realistic.
I also mentioned in my post that we have a better team going by the nations cup performances for both teams but we can’t pin our hopes on that because teams do pick-up form when you least expect for example Algeria.
This was a team that was humiliated by Nigeria en route to Russia 2018,but a sudden change of manager changed their fortune,they went 35 games unbeaten which was a record in Africa.
I do understand what you want to put through but feeling smug or complacent even before the ball is kicked could backfire on a team.
Showing respect to your opponent is not weakness rather it helps you to know the strength they possess which enables you to approach the game in full gear.
The thing with being complacent is you are unaware of actual danger before you because you are ill prepared,you suddenly are faced with a serious sudden situation you weren’t prepared to deal with for example the Tunisian game in the last Afcon.
We have to learn from the past you can’t be doing the same thing and expect a different result.
@Greenturf, I honestly understand where you are coming from but we must be careful that cautiousness does not give way to fear or too much respect. There is not much change in the Ghanian team but for a few new additions so how did they go from the woeful team that played at the afcon to a team that is now deemed able to stand toe to toe with the SE? Even the midfield that is their strength supposedly, They have only 3 players in that department that play top flight football i.e. Partey, Idrissu Baba and Kudus, the rest play in a farmers league like belgium, moldova and one of them even plays division 2 football. we also
have Aribo, Onyeka, Bonke and Etebo (Agreed the latter has not played competitive football lately) who play their football in a top 5 league or at least train with players in a top 5 league.
Even the defense,let us analyse it. Mensa (Bordeaux), Amartey(Leicester) & Djiku (Strasbourg) and Abdul Mumin(VG) are the notable names who play their football in a top 5 league. Compare that to Nigeria who has Bassey (Rangers), Balogun(Rangers), Zaidu(Porto), Aina (Torino) & Ekong (Watford), albeit the last 2 have not featured for their clubs recently. The rest of their defenders play in Ghana, Israel, Reading FC & belgium.
Nice piece oga. Send me your address and I will send you a ghana shirt. You missed one thing, you guys should be mindful of issahaku and yaw Yeboah on the wings and especially kudus. You only call these guys inexperienced if you do not follow Ghanaian football. Pls Google yaw yeboah and read about him. He’s been around for ages and played in all the age groups. In fact, he scored one of the most beautiful goals in world football last year. I have given you enough. May the best team win.
I will give it to you in the striking department but not defence and midfield. We have better and more consistent defenders and midfielders
Great analysis Greenturf. Thanks. Both Nigeria and Ghana squads are not as worlds apart as we would like to think. But we have played better football of late and the nucleus of our team is arguably more experienced and exposed.
Nigeria still go in as favourites to advantage going by our strength in depth across the park.
**”Nigeria still go in as favourites to advance going by our strength in depth across the park.”**
Thanks @deo,absolutely,I did acknowledge we have a better team going by the recent Afcon performances from both teams.
However,we can’t rest on our laurels,because you do be surprise how quick things could change.
We should remain focused,respect our opponent,acknowledge their strengths.Basically,I am on about us not getting into a position of being unprepared to deal with a situation.If you know what i mean.
@Greenturf I will tell you why super eagles is a better side. Before now we all know that names doesn’t play football. If you have good name on your side it has to be with good team and not to talk of Ghana only having few names in their midfield, without a formidable team, super eagles on the other side, largely have being playing together for a while now. Another thing is that we are the one with dreadful attackers. When there is unrest in their defence definitely it will affect their midfield play. My only concern is Eguavoen, I don’t much trust Eguavoen in picking any ticket for us.
Hahahaha ndi ara
Lol! 33yrs? Very funny indeed. Again releasing the team 3days to the match is as same as releasing it 2wks ago. We have seen all the surprises and we will be super ready on friday.
Now the list is out , then I say let the games begin . I believe Ghana deliberately kept this all due to mind games . Secondly , super Eagles are aware of the history of Their rivalry and would never underestimate Ghana one bit since there have been wins and losses of both teams .
Decision of formation all lies within the coach of the team . I sure hope Eguavon and Amuneke take time to know what to do . Those saying about the formations mind U Senegal have been using the 4-3-3 formation throughout the years and it’s what helped them win the AFCON and probably the world cup qualification. All I know is the commitment of the players to perform well with the strategies their coaches give them without any taking for granted their opponent. I wish the super Eagles the best as they aim high for the qualification.
Best coaches around the world or top notch players would say is difficult playing against unknown teams or players. That’s what SE should be mindful of. Coaches easily have a strategy to mark out highly rated players but can’t be said of unknown ones. In today’s football, knowing your opponent is very critical and Nigeria don’t have to underestimate the black stars. The game will be won by the side which strategy works perfectly for the day.
I will give it to you in the striking department but not defence and midfield. We have better and more consistent defenders and midfielders
I am scared of this squad! They can even win the World Cup in Quatar.
Lmao!! Which WorldCup?? The one Asamoah Gyan blasted a penalty across the bar?? We know it’s going to be tough, but the SuperEagles will soar above the Stars.
This is a decent list. Eagles should watch out for Kudus,Yaw Yeboah,Partey and Kofi kyereh. Kill supply to Partey once he is starved the ball he will commit a foul and the game is over for Ghana. Eagles should attack them they’re a team full of defense lapses. Funny to say these Ghana team is a good test for us but If We Must Go To World Cup Then We Must Overcome.
Good team! I’m a strong believe of team chemistry. Let’s see whether our team that has been together for a while can overcome Ghana’s hurriedly prepared team. May the best team win.
Ernest 2 seconds ago
Guys dr dre has suddenly turn to ghanian overnight in other to support them against Nigeria. If you read his comments quite well u got to notice. So “self made” is the original dr dre. Take it to the bank