Ghana and Nigeria do not share borders, but the two countries’ rivalry transcends borders and this rivalry has existed for as long as we can remember.
With the just announced draw of the qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup to be held this year in Qatar, Ghana is yet again paired with its arch rival Nigeria and this announcement has kept Social Media buzzing with predictions and show of support for the respective countries. It has also brought back memories of previous encounters between the two West African countries and from the statistics, it appears Ghana holds the bragging rights for now as it has won more matches against Nigeria. The heaviest defeat suffered in the hands of Ghana by Nigeria came prior independence when in 1955, the Red Devils, Nigeria’s national team name then suffered a 7-0 humiliating defeat.
But if the happenings in the ongoing AFCON 2021 in Cameroun is anything to go by, then Ghana stands no chance of beating the current Super Eagles team which is showcasing some terrific form at the tournament and giving a good account of themselves so far.
Ghana however crashed out with only one point which left the country at the bottom of its Group. It is one of the worse performance put up by the Black Stars in an AFCON tournament. It is a tournament the country would want to forget quickly and move on. The awful performance has led to the country’s coach Milovan Rajevac being shown the exit door.
The connoisseurs of the game would tell you that, when it comes to crucial meetings or matches of this nature between the two countries, form does not really play much of a role. The rivalry would be so intense that it clouds everything and so the better team on the day goes with the win and enjoy the bragging rights.
With the advent of social media, the Ghana Nigeria rivalry has taken a different dimension. It has added more fuel to the “fire” and so the banter especially on micro blogging site Twitter gets off the chain. If your country is on the losing side, then be prepared to be trolled till a major breaking news of epic proportion comes to your rescue.
The World Cup play offs between the two countries would be a home and away feature with Ghana playing home first and Nigeria hosting the return leg. It is slated for March 24 and 29 2022.
It’d be difficult to predict the winner in this encounter, both countries can very well represent Africa in Qatar 2022 just like the other 4 African teams who would fill in the five slots for Africa in the World Cup.
Senegal would face off with Egypt and what this means is that, we would not be seeing both Mohammed Salah and Sadio Mane in Qatar 2022. Current AFCON host nation Cameroun will battle it out with another African football giant, Algeria. Mali would renew their rivalry with Tunisia and DR Congo would come face to face with Morocco.