Former Ghana international Laryea Kingston has insisted that the Black Stars will reach the World Cup semi-finals in Qatar this year.

Despite being the lowest-ranked team entering the tournament, the four-time African champions have set a goal of reaching the semi-finals, and have budgeted for it.

Ghana are in a difficult group with Portugal, South Korea and Uruguay, and will start their campaign on November 24 against the former European champions with FIFA World Cup odds favouring the Black Stars

“I am however very optimistic about a good outing at the World Cup. We have a solid technical team because they work in an elite environment, so they know what is at stake.

“Most of the technical team members have been to the World Cup, so they know what is at stake. I know Ghanaians are not too confident, but they should think back at what happened in the 2006 World Cup. We were out during the group stages at the 2006 AFCON, but when we went to the World Cup, we saw what Ghana did. “So, for me, I think we will go there and do well,” Kingston said to GNA.

Black Stars haven't been in great form ahead of the tournament, winning two games under Otto Addo. The wins came against Madagascar and Central African Republic and lost heavily to Japan and Brazil.

The former Hearts of Oak midfielder says despite the recent poor run of results, the performance of the Black Stars has been improving steadily, especially with their second-half display against Brazil in the last month’s friendly.

“For me, I am delighted we qualified for the World Cup,” he said. “I believe the unity among Ghanaians would help propel the team to greater heights at the World Cup. My little concern is about team cohesion, considering that most of these players have not played together for long,” he added in an interview.

He urged the technical team to field the country's best players in the pre-World Cup friendly against Switzerland because it would show how far we would progress in the tournament.

“As an experienced ex-international, I will urge the players to take one game at a time. Despite having some history with Uruguay, we have two other teams to play in the group, so I think we should take it game by game.

“Black Stars can go far, we have been there several times and we have the experience. We deserve to get to the semi-final or final. I believe coming together to support and believe in the boys can motivate them,” he stated.