Coach Chris Hughton and his coaching staff will come under pressure to get Ghana’s 2026 World Cup qualifying campaign off to a flying start as the Black Stars host Mozambique at the Baba Yara Stadium on Friday and play away to Comoros four days later, with the results likely to determine the future of Hughton and his coaching staff.
The FA’s top priority and the coach’s main goal is to qualify for the FIFA World Cup in 2026. However, with his job as coach in jeopardy due to a dismal run of results, the results of the upcoming qualifiers will be critical, particularly for Ghana, which hopes to make its fifth appearance at the world’s largest football tournament in the USA, Canada, and Mexico.
Madagascar’s Berea may not be regarded as one of the continent’s biggest football teams, but they have a strong record against Ghana and might present the Black Stars with another challenge.
At the June Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers at Antananarivo, the two teams drew scorelessly. The previous year, during Coach Hughton’s tenure as Otto Addo’s technical advisor, the Black Stars defeated the opposition 3-0 in Kumasi.
He therefore has a fair understanding of the island nation’s capabilities and knows that they intend to cause a stir at a place where Ghana hasn’t lost in 23 years.
The previous encounter between Ghana and Madagascar ended in a 2-1 loss for the Berea in an international friendly held in South Africa.
Public trust in Coach Chris Hughton has decreased as a result of worries about the team’s lackluster performances, especially the team’s recent friendly match losses to Mexico and the USA. The Irish-Ghanaian coach is aware of the high expectations placed on him.
In an interview last week, he told the BBC that he was committed to making sure the team produced quality work.
“What we would want is to do well in these games, to win these games and to be able to go into AFCON with good momentum. But these [World Cup qualifiers] must come first.
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“My role as coach of the Black Stars is to get the best results and the best performances from the team. You can’t always get that.
“But you can always learn from your previous experiences, whether it’s good or bad. And, ultimately, I will work as hard as I always do to try to get things done in the best way that we can,” he said.
In the absence of injured midfield enforcer Thomas Partey, Coach Hughton will count on the experience of Skipper Andre Ayew, who has just signed for French top-flight side Le Havre, and the genius of midfielders Mohammed Kudus, Jordan Ayew, Ernest Nuamah, as well as forwards Joseph Paintsil, Osman Bukari and Antoine Semenyo, to get Ghana a win on Friday.
The return of the experienced Daniel Amartey should help organise the defence which has been badly exposed in recent matches.
Madagascar Coach, Romuald ‘Roro’ Rakotondrabe, has also named a strong squad to face the Black Stars with FC Nantes defender, Fortun Titouan Silidy, and FC Sochaux’s Thomas Fortaine among the squad.
Andre Ayew and his teammates will also be mindful of the threat posed by Comoros after they defeated the Black Stars 3-2 and dumped them out of the 2021 AFCON in Cameroun as ‘Les Coelacantes’ reached the Round of 16 of the continental competition.
SOURCE:GRAPHICONLINE
