To call Ghana’s World Cup qualification campaign eventful would be a massive understatement, having beaten South Africa on the final matchday courtesy of a controversial penalty.
There were allegations of match-fixing, but nevertheless Ghana proceeded, knocking out Nigeria over two legs by virtue of away goals to book an appearance at a fourth World Cup and first since going to three in a row – a sequence that was broken up by the failure to qualify for Russia 2018.
There most memorable run came in 2010 when they made it through to the quarter-finals only to come up against Luis Suarez and his handball on the line, resulting in Asamoah Gyan missing the resulting spot-kick before the Black Stars lost out on penalties.
Having been drawn in a group with Portugal, Korea Republic and Uruguay, it sets up a mouth-watering encounter on December 2 against their rivals of eight years ago.
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Ghana World Cup 2022 Tips
Read the latest Ghana odds ahead of the World Cup, including their odds to win the tournament, odds to claim the golden boot, 101 Great Goals’ top tip and more 2022 World Cup predictions and tips.
Ghana World Cup Predictions
World Cup betting tips
With a world ranking of 61, Ghana are the lowest-ranked side in the World Cup and unlikely to progress from the groups.
Ghana Golden Boot Prediction
World Cup betting tips
Manager
Otto Addo
The World Cup opener against Portugal will be just Otto Addo’s 11th game in charge, replacing Milovan Rajevac after a disastrous AFCON, and ahead of the play-off with Nigeria. Addo won 15 senior caps for Ghana, and has since worked for Nordsjælland, Borussia Mönchengladbach and Borussia Dortmund, but this is his first senior head coaching role.
Under him, they’ve largely used some variation of a 4-2-3-1, usually a pretty defensive one, with that theme likely to continue, given who they’ll be up against.
Thomas Partey is absolutely key for this team; he’s the personification of a midfield general, which is far from ideal given how injury prone he is. Partey’s defensive awareness allows Mohammed Kudus, who’s been on fire as a centre-forward for Ajax this season, to get forward and join the attack.
The most interesting aspect of this team though is their ‘new recruits’. Led by Technical Advisor Chris Hughton, the GFA have focussed on recruiting dual-nationals and other eligible players. In 2022 alone, Tariq Lamptey, Dennis Odoi, Mohammed Salisu, Felix Afena-Gyan and Iñaki Williams have all made their international debuts.
Despite, as of yet, being unable to convince Callum Hudson-Odoi or Eddie Nketiah, this squad is looking infinitely stronger than just seven months ago when they qualified.
Record
Total appearances: 5
First qualification: 1990
Most recent: 2018
Best achievement: Quarter-finals (2014)
World Ranking: 31
Overall record: P18, W5, D5, L8
Key players
Iñaki Williams
Of all the players who’ve committed to Ghana this year, Iñaki Williams is the headline ‘signing’, not least thanks to his outstanding form in La Liga so far.
The cliché about the Athletic Club striker Williams is that he’s good but can’t finish, scoring six, six and eight in the last three campaigns respectively.
However, just nine games into this season, he already has three goals and now, at 28 years old, his game has gone to another level. If Ghana are going to spring a surprise or two in Group H, they’re going to need a reliable goal-scorer, and they might just have found one in Spain’s Basque region.
101′s Ghana World Cup Tip
In Group H, Ghana will be up against Portugal and Korea Republic, before that eagerly anticipated rematch with Uruguay.
This is an extremely challenging group, with the Black Stars massive underdogs to advance, and rightly so. As previously mentioned, they were eliminated in the group stages of AFCON by Comoros, world ranked 129, as recently as January, so will need to have improved exponentially to compete in this section.
Ghana are 1/3 to be eliminated in the group stages, a decent price, and are 11/10 to end up bottom of the group. Korea Republic are, bizarrely, priced exactly the same, meaning there is real value in backing Ghana to come fourth in their section.
101’s Top Tip
Ghana stats, fixtures and results
Follow our Ghana page for the latest statistics, live odds, fixtures, results and match facts of every game at the World Cup.
