Local Stars take on Ivorians

Ghana’s home-based Black Stars have stepped up the gear for this weekend’s important clash with their Ivorian opponents in what promises to be an uncompromising African Nations Championship (CHAN) qualifier at the Baba Yara Stadium.

The local Stars, who have been in camp for a number of weeks preparing for Sunday’s showdown, have to utilise their home advantage to win convincingly to make the return leg in Abidjan an academic exercise.

Since the introduction of the CHAN tournament in 2009, Ghana have qualified for all the three competitions and have appeared in the final on two occasions, losing to DR Congo in the maiden edition and against Libya in the 2014 edition.

The Ivorians present a formidable opposition and could be the Stars’ biggest threat to qualifying for the January 16 to February 7 CHAN tournament in Rwanda.

With his arrival from international assignment in Washington, head coach Maxwell Konadu and his assistant, Dauda Lutterodt, who supervised their last warm-up game, a 4-1 thumping of Asokwa Deportivo last Wednesday, are expected to map out a winning strategy against the tough Ivorian side.

Coach Konadu, who guided the team to the final of the 2014 CHAN in South Africa, has at his disposal some of the finest home-based players and is expected to build his team around players such as  Fatau Dauda, Ganiu Ismail, Richard Ofori, Kwame Boateng, Godfred Saka, Joshua Tijani, Abeiku Ainooson, Nuhu Fuseini and Eric Kumi.

The winner of the two-leg match will pick one of the three slots for Zone West B, which also features matches between Nigeria and Burkina Faso, and Niger versus Togo.