GHANA vs. EGYPT Kickoff: 18.00 CLT African World Cup qualifying final playoffs – First leg Venue: Baba Yara Stadium, Kumasi Referee: Bouchaib Al-Ahrach (Morocco) MATCH FACTS -Ghana finished the qualifying group stage as the highest-scoring team with 18 goals in six games, followed by Egypt on 16. -Among the 10 group winners in Africa, Egypt conceded the most goals along with Ethiopia (7). -Ghana's biggest-ever competitive defeat came during the month of October and against Egypt (5-1 loss at the 1964 Olympic Games in Tokyo). -On the other hand, Egypt's 3-0 defeat to Ghana in this year's friendly in Doha was the heaviest for the Pharaohs since 2009 – ironically – when they lost to Bob Bradley's USA in the Confederations Cup. -Egypt are the only nation in the entire FIFA 2014 World Cup qualifiers with a 100% winning record in all their games so far. -Mohamed Abou-Treika and Mohamed Salah contributed to 75% of Egypt's goals in the qualifiers so far. -Salah – the top scorer of the African qualifiers so far – is the only player to have featured in every single minute of Egypt's campaign so far.
Salah and Treika have been pivotal for Egypt -Defense duo Harrison Afful and John Boye are the only two Ghana players to have featured in every single minute of qualifying so far, although they are both out against Egypt. -Abou-Treika is Egypt's active top-scorer of all time with 37 goals, which is curiously the same number of goals registered by Ghana's leading marksman Asamoah Gyan. QUOTES Ghana coach James Kwesi Appiah "At the moment, we have been able to put our best players together and preparation is equally going well. "With the team together and willing to give more than 100 per cent knowing what is at stake, we can be confident of a fine result. "In football circles, it's important that every nation strives to go [to the World Cup]. "It's one game at a time for us. We can't start talking about our place in Brazil. We are not there. We face a tough side over two legs and we need good results over both legs. "(Despite missing several players) No experimentation would be made. We are not going to experiment, we have a clear goal and we know what we want to achieve." Egypt coach Bob Bradley "We want to make sure we put ourselves in a good position going back to the match in Egypt. "We know Ghana very well and the fact that their team is loaded with stars like Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari , but we feel absolutely no fear. "In as much as they too will be missing many players due to injury they still have a very strong squad.
KPB missing for Ghana "We have worked hard to prepare ourselves, we know the Ghana team very well. We respect them but we also feel that we are a strong team and we are confident. "We must have the right mentality for the start of the match and play intelligently. "The players have remained determined to make this dream happen and we are focused on the final round and finishing what we have been working to do." TEAM NEWS Hosts Ghana have been hit by a tornado of injuries of late, losing no less than five key men ahead of the crucial game. Star midfielder Kevin-Prince Boateng leads the injury list, along with regular central defenders Jonathan Mensah and Boye. Midfielder Mohamed Rabiu is also out injured while key full-back Afful is serving a one-match suspension. Defender Isaac Vorsah is another man on the injury list. Goalkeeper Richard Kingson has been injured with his Cypriot club last week but should be fit to make his first Ghana appearance in over two years. As for Egypt, manager Bradley has no serious concerns, apart from the long-term injury of Fiorentina center-half Ahmed Hegazi. Striker Geddo and midfielder Hosni Abd-Rabou were both declared fit following respective operations this year, but are not sure to regain starting places. PROBABLE LINE-UPS Ghana: Kingson – Opare, Addy, Akaminko, Sumaila – Essien, Asamoah, Muntari, Ayew, Wakaso – Gyan Egypt: Ekrami – Fathi, Moawad, Gomaa, Naguib – Elneny, Ashour, Ghaly, Abou-Treika, Soliman - Salah
