PREPARATIONS TOWARDS AMPUTEE FOOTBALL WORLD CUP TAKE OFF AS…….
Ghanaians would once again witness the rivalry between Ghana and Nigeria when the two nations clash in a special amputee football friendly match scheduled to take place at the Lizzy Sports Complex in Accra on May 10.
The Ghana national amputee football team, the Black Challenge, would host their Nigerian counterparts, the Special Eagles as part of the two African nations’ preparation towards the forth coming Amputee Football World Cup in Mexico later this year.
Coming from their bronze medal feat at the recently-held 4th Cup of African Nations for Amputee Football (CANAF) in Nairobi, Kenya, Ghana want use this friendly to test the preparedness of their players ahead of the biennial competition that gathers the best nations in Amputee Football in the world.
The two countries have clashed on a few occasions in amputee football with the most recent ones being at the CANAF in Kenya where they met on two occasions. Ghana’s Black Challenge beat Nigeria’s Special Eagles 1-0 at the group stage and later thumped Kenya to top their group.
As fate may have it, the two nations met again to determine who placed third at the competition with Nigeria seeking revenge whilst Ghana looked for a repeat of the earlier defeat. The game ended 0-0 with Nigeria putting up a better game to the surprise of Ghana.
However, when it was time for the penalties, the Black Challenge demonstrated their superiority over Nigeria with a 3-2 win for the bronze medal.
In 2008, Nigeria beat Ghana 2-1 in a friendly match played at Begoro in Ghana. In the return encounter in Lagos, Ghana revenged with a 1-0 win.
This friendly match would either be revenge or repeat as Nigeria storm Ghana with more determination to avenge those defeats that are still fresh in their minds.
On their part, Ghana want to reaffirm their superiority over Nigeria in amputee football and more so on home soil where they look forward to drawing inspiration from their fans.
Nigeria would later host Ghana in a return encounter in Lagos.
To Ghana, this match serves as prelude to series of friendly matches ahead of the world cup in November, including a match against Turkey or other European nations and the beginning of the proposed amputee football league in the country this year.
The match is sponsored in part by Lizzy Sports Complex.
Fans are expected to throng the complex to witness this great match.