Ivory Coast and Ghana to square up in African Nations CupSubmitted by admin on November 20, 2009 - 5:26pm |
The two most respected African soccer nations at the moment, Ivory Coast and Ghana will face each other in Group B during the group stages of the 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola.
The competition will take place from January 10 till 31 and matches will be played in Luanda the capital city along with Benguela, Cabinda and Lubando provinces.
This is not the first time both nations have played against each other in the continent’s biggest soccer event. Just last year, during Ghana 2008 at the same competition, Ivory Coast lost to Ghana 4-2 in the 3rd place consolation match held in Kumasi, Ghana.
In 1992 in Senegal, during the final game, Ivory Coast took the trophy home after defeating Ghana 11-10 during sudden death of the penalty kicks after the game had ended 0-0 in regulation and extra time.
Just like the last time in 2008, Didier Drogba and Salomon Kalou will square up against their Chelsea club teammate Michael Essien of Ghana.
Both nations are expected to advance from their group, not just because of their current form, but also due to the lack of competition from Togo and Burkina Faso the other two teams in Group B.
For the host nation Angola, their prospect of making the knockout phase could be an arduous task with Mali, Malawi and Algeria as their opponents. It should be an interesting group to follow especially with Algeria defeating Egypt on Wednesday to take the final ticket in the pulsating African World Cup qualifier in Sudan.
“None of the games are going to be easy,” Angola’s coach Manuel Jose said. “But our group is a balanced one and that has given us hope of qualifying to the final stage of the tournament.”
Except for South Africa, all other African qualifiers for the World Cup will be present in Angola. Group C has Tunisia who lost the opportunity to make the World Cup with their loss to Mozambique in Maputo. Along with Cameroon, Gabon and Zambia, that should be another exciting group.
The last and final group has defending and back-to-back champions Egypt along with Nigeria, Benin and Nigeria’s good luck charm Mozambique. It was Mozambique’s victory in Maputo coupled with the Super Eagles 3-2 win over Kenya that sent the most populous African nation to the World Cup.
Only the top two teams from each group can advance to the knockout phase (the quarterfinals).
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