Zambia coach Herve Renard has served notice to Ghana to be well prepared ahead of today’s game because his side is “battle ready” despite their late arrival in Kumasi.

The decisive group game has been characterised by a lot of pre-match tension. The Chipolopolo were originally scheduled to arrive in Ghana on Wednesday, but aborted their flight since they could not obtain permission to land directly at Kumasi, which has no international airport.

The 2012 Africa champions arrived late on Thursday and were not allowed to train at the Baba Yara Stadium because they failed to honour their allotted time to train and the gates were closed by the time they got there. The Chipolopolo had to resort to the car park of the stadium to undergo a few shake-ups.

Coach Renard said he is unperturbed about ongoing developments because his charges are well focused.

“Nothing happened. We were late for our training and the gates were closed,” the Frenchman exclusively told Goal Ghana. “We tried to find compromise, but we didn’t.”

Renard said such things are part of the beautiful game and no amount of frustration will intimidate his side.

“It’s football. Now we’ll meet on the battle field. You’ll enjoy the game. I love pressure, this is football, just have to be strong. It will be more than tough,” he stated to Goal.

The winner of today’s game will make it to the final round of the 2014 World Cup qualifying games.