Two of the most successful Afcon teams, the African Cup of Nations, will play each other in the second group match at 20:00 GMT. With seven titles won by Egypt and four by Ghana, the stakes were high between the two on Thursday. ghana vs Egypt.
The Pharaohs’ opening encounter against Mozambique ended in a draw as star player Mohammed Salah scored a late penalty to make the score 2-2.
For Ghana’s black stars, a late goal scored by Cape Verde in the 92nd minute meant they would not receive a point.
Match preview and squad news for the African Cup of Nations
Ghana has lost its last five tournament games (D2, L3), but the black stars are hoping that this will change with the Egypt match.
The Pharaohs have only lost one of their previous 20 Afcon group matches, which was a 1-0 loss to Nigeria in 2022. (W14, D5)
In a pre-game interview, Ghana’s coach Chris Hughton stated, “We’re not really aware of how big this game is.” For us to attain the desired outcome, we must play at a high level.
Fans and Ghanaian stakeholders are putting fire under Chris’s feet to turn things around for the four-time winners.
The coach is still worried about Mohammed Kudus’s fitness, as I missed the opening match against Cape Verde due to an injury.
However, as I mentioned earlier, “Kudus train with di squad these past few days, we go assess am on Thursday morning.”
Ghana vs Egypt Match preview and squad news
“We don’t come to Ivory Coast to visit; we come here to say we go perform well,” I add.
Egypt will receive four points if they win this game, meaning Ghana will still have no points after two games.
Team news: Egypt is expected to start with the same team that drew 2-2 with Mozambique in their opening encounter.
Coach Rui Vitoria is not concerned about any new injuries.
I played 78 minutes in the last game that Mohammed Elneny didn’t start.
An Arsenal midfielder is back to playing in the middle of the field.
Forward Trezeguet of Trabzonspor did not do well in the previous game, thus Mohamed Salah of Liverpool had a quiet one.
However, Salah will always start for the Pharaohs, and Trezeguet, whom Omar Marmoush is fit to replace am, will start for the team.
Aside from that, I didn’t think Rui Vitoria would make any significant modifications.
El-Shenawy, Hany, Hegazy, Abdelmonem, Hamdi, Zizo, Elneny, Fathi, Marmoush, Mohamed, and Salah were the predicted Egypt XI.
Coach Chris Hughton of Ghana didn’t exactly state, “I’m going to make changes to the team we lost to Cape Verde.”
All of the other players are available, except for Kudus, who passed the late fitness test.
They probably said that Lens midfielder Abdul Salis Samed would start in defense with Daniel Amartey to support Alexander Djiku, who was named man of the match against Cape Verde.
Inaki Williams, a striker for Athletic Bilbao, is expected to start.
Ransford Yeboah Königsdorfer, a midfielder for Hamburg, was benched after having a bad game against Cape Verde.
Ghana XI prediction: Jordan, Paintsil, Kudus*/Bukari, Inaki, Ofori, Odoi, Djiku, Amartey, Mensah, Salis, Ashmeru, and Jordan
Important player
Mohamed Salah scored his first goal at the 2017 Afcon against Ghana (1-0).
The Liverpool player has scored in his last two games against the Black Stars.
Salah scored seven goals overall at the Afcon.
Only Hassan El-Shazly (12), Hossam Hassan (11), and Ahmed Hassan (8) are ahead of me at this point.
Additionally, Salah made history by being the first Egyptian player to score in four different Afcon competitions (2019, 2022, 2023)
Captain Andre Ayew of Ghana has set a record by becoming the first player to score in seven Afcon championships.
Captain Andre Ayew of Ghana has set a record by becoming the first player to score in seven Afcon championships.
I currently play in the same league with players who have scored goals in six different tournaments, such as Asamoah Gyan, a former captain of Ghana, Kalusha Bwalya of Zambia, and Samuel Eto’o of Cameroon, who holds the record for most goals scored in the Cup of Nations with eighteen.
If André doesn’t start the game, everyone will be looking on Inaki Williams to score goals similar to how I do for Athletic Bilbao.
In 13 games since my 2022 debut, the striker for the Black Stars has only managed one goal.
However, in 18 games with my Spanish team, Inaki scored 8 goals and provided 3 assists.
Comparatively:
This will be the fifth time that Egypt and Ghana will compete at the Afcon.
They play three group stage matches (one win, one draw, and two goals each) and one championship match. Egypt’s 2010 victory is 1-0.
Egypt wins their final 2017 group stage match 1-0.
Just five goals have been scored in the last four AFCCON encounters between the two teams.
The Pharaohs will be hoping to win this game to avoid losing their first two group-stage matches for a tournament since 1992 when they were defeated by Ghana on the second day of play.