{"id":420960,"date":"2017-09-22T04:00:26","date_gmt":"2017-09-22T04:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghana-mma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/"},"modified":"2017-09-22T04:00:26","modified_gmt":"2017-09-22T04:00:26","slug":"ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghana battle Niger for ticket to final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div id=\"medsection1\">\n<!-- End of html generated by this->header() --><\/p>\n<p class=\"floatLeft\">Sports News of Friday, 22 September 2017<\/p>\n<p class=\"floatRight\"><strong>Source: <\/strong>Graphic.com.gh <\/p>\n<p>2017-09-22<\/p>\n<div class=\"article-left\">\n<p class=\"article-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/31696345.295.jpg\" alt=\"Maxwell Konadu AFCON 2017.jpeg\" title=\"Maxwell Konadu AFCON 2017.jpeg\" width=\"295\" height=\"201\" \/><span class=\"image_caption\"><span>Maxwell Konadu<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"noPrint\">\n<div id=\"537626303\" style=\"width:300;height:250;margin:0;padding:0\">\n\t\t  <noscript><iframe loading=\"lazy\" id=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" name=\"b2ad7fa7fd\" src=\"http:\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/afr?auid=537626303&amp;cb=149916385178506\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"300\" height=\"250\"><a href=\"\/\/ghanaweb-d.openx.net\/w\/1.0\/rc?cs=b2ad7fa7fd&amp;cb=149916385178506\">&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ghanamma.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/1506052826_749_ai\" border=\"0\" alt=\"\" \/><\/a><\/iframe><\/noscript>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p style=\"clear:right\"> After  going down 0-2 to arch rivals Nigeria in their last Group match on  Monday, Black Stars B Coach, Maxwell Konadu, and his charges have another opportunity to return to winning ways when they lock horns with Niger this evening in the semi-finals of the WAFU Cup of Nations at the Cape Coast Stadium with a ticket to the final up for grabs.<\/p>\n<p>As the host team, the Black Stars B were among the pre-tournament favourites to win the competition and their fine run ahead of last Monday\u2019s 0-2 upset by Nigeira further strengthened the team\u2019s status as they head into today\u2019s clash with the Nigeriens.<\/p>\n<p>Following the Star\u2019s failure to qualify for next year\u2019s CHAN, the WAFU tournament provided an opportunity to redeem their image. But Ghana\u2019s poor start against the Gambia was the red flag that got Konadu and his charges to sit up and improve upon their performance.<\/p>\n<p>Now they face the Menas of Niger who slowly warmed themselves into the competition and posted some shocking results such as their 2-1 victory over Senegal in their opening group match and a 0-0 draw with the highly rated Elephants of Cote d\u2019 Ivoire to book a date with Ghana.<\/p>\n<p>Notwithstanding criticisms of the team\u2019s performance, Coach Konadu has assured Ghanaians  that he will qualify his side to Sunday\u2019s final and win the ultimate title and the  $100,000 winner\u2019s prize.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is very unfortunate that we lost our last Group match against Nigeria . I have congratulated them because they played better than us. However, some of my players were nursing some  injuries, but with Niger, it will be a different story,  a confident Konadu said last Monday.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c I believe in myself and I know what we are capable of doing. I accept the criticisms of the fans,  but  let them take heart that  we will  beat Niger to qualify to the final and win the trophy at stake,\u201c he added.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from a few injury worries over the availability of captain Isaac Twum and midfielder Gideon Waja, the Ghana side have strength in depth and are likely to have midfielder Thomas Abbey fit to start today alongside Stephen Sarfo, Winful Cobbinah and Felix Addo in attack.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the confidence exuded by Coach Konadu, the Menas have proven they have the mental strength to stand up to the favourites, and on the strength of their performances against Senegal and Cote d\u2019Ivoire, both initially considered pre-tournament favourites, Ghana cannot afford to underrate their opponents.<\/p>\n<p>Ghana and Niger have met in 11 previous matches, according to FIFA statistics. Ghana boast an unbeaten record (10 wins, one draw) and have outscored their opponents 38 goals to four in the process.<\/p>\n<p>(Head-to-head)<\/p>\n<p>Ghana v Niger<\/p>\n<p>Matches played-11<\/p>\n<p>Ghana wins-10<\/p>\n<p>Niger wins-0<\/p>\n<p>Draws-1<\/p>\n<p>Ghana goals-38<\/p>\n<p>Niger goals-4<\/p>\n<p><!-- uploaded by: 50 updated by: 50 --><\/p>\n<p><!-- Start of html generated by this->footer() -->\n<\/div>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a style=\"display:none\" rel=\"follow\" href=\"http:\/\/megatheme.ir\/\" title=\"\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633\">\u0642\u0627\u0644\u0628 \u0648\u0631\u062f\u067e\u0631\u0633<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sports News of Friday, 22 September 2017 Source: Graphic.com.gh 2017-09-22 Maxwell Konadu &#13; After going down 0-2 to arch rivals Nigeria in their last Group match on Monday, Black Stars B Coach, Maxwell Konadu, and his charges have another opportunity to return to winning ways when they lock horns with Niger this evening in the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":398652,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-420960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ghana battle Niger for ticket to final - Ghanamma.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Ghana battle Niger for ticket to final - Ghanamma.com\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"Sports News of Friday, 22 September 2017 Source: Graphic.com.gh 2017-09-22 Maxwell Konadu &#013; After going down 0-2 to arch rivals Nigeria in their last Group match on Monday, Black Stars B Coach, Maxwell Konadu, and his charges have another opportunity to return to winning ways when they lock horns with Niger this evening in the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ghanamma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/22\\\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/22\\\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"\",\"@id\":\"\"},\"headline\":\"Ghana battle Niger for ticket to final\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-22T04:00:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/22\\\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":488,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/22\\\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"articleSection\":[\"Sports\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/22\\\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/22\\\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/22\\\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ghana battle Niger for ticket to final - Ghanamma.com\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/22\\\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/22\\\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-22T04:00:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/22\\\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/09\\\/22\\\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"\",\"contentUrl\":\"\"},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/\",\"name\":\"Ghanamma.com\",\"description\":\"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.ghanamma.com\\\/2017\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ghana battle Niger for ticket to final - Ghanamma.com","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_title":"Ghana battle Niger for ticket to final - Ghanamma.com","twitter_description":"Sports News of Friday, 22 September 2017 Source: Graphic.com.gh 2017-09-22 Maxwell Konadu &#13; After going down 0-2 to arch rivals Nigeria in their last Group match on Monday, Black Stars B Coach, Maxwell Konadu, and his charges have another opportunity to return to winning ways when they lock horns with Niger this evening in the [&hellip;]","twitter_creator":"@ghanamma","twitter_site":"@ghanamma","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/"},"author":{"name":"","@id":""},"headline":"Ghana battle Niger for ticket to final","datePublished":"2017-09-22T04:00:26+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/"},"wordCount":488,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","articleSection":["Sports"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/","name":"Ghana battle Niger for ticket to final - Ghanamma.com","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"","datePublished":"2017-09-22T04:00:26+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/09\/22\/ghana-battle-niger-for-ticket-to-final\/#primaryimage","url":"","contentUrl":""},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/","name":"Ghanamma.com","description":"News In Ghana - Latest Ghana News Headlines","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420960\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2017\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}