Ghana beat South Africa in group stage decider
Ghana to host Nigeria at the Baba Yara Stadium
The Black Stars of Ghana are set to face Nigeria in the first leg of the 2022 FIFA World Cup playoffs at the Baba Yara Stadium on March 25, 2022.
With a few days left to kick-off, GhanaWeb takes a look back at how the pathway to playoffs has been for Black Stars.
Ghana were drawn in Group G of the group stage alongside South Africa, Ethiopia, and Zimbabwe
The Black Stars started their campaign with a 1-0 win over Ethiopia at the Cape Coast Stadium on September 6, 2022. Mubarak Wakaso's strike handed Ghana a good start.
Three days later, the team travelled to South Africa, to face the Bafana Bafana at the FNB stadium for their second group fixture.
Ghana suffered a 1-0 defeat with South Africa claiming the top of the group with four points, following a draw with Zimbabwe in the first game.
Ghana concluded the first round of the group stage with a win and also started the last phase with a win, beating Zimbabwe 3-1 and 1-0 respectively.
South Africa in that regard recorded a back-to-back 3-1 and 1-0 win over Ethiopia to move to 10 points while Ghana had 9 in what was a two-horse race.
In the last but one game, South Africa having drawn with Zimbabwe in the opener beat the Warriors 1-0 in the return encounter in Johannesburg.
on the other hand, Ghana were held to a one-all draw with Ethiopia, which means the Bafana Bafana opened a 3-point gap at the top.
The rules for the group stage round required that only top table finishers in the ten different groups progress to the playoff round.
This meant that Ghana who trailed South Africa by 3 points needed a win over the latter in the final group fixture to first, go tied on the same points, neutralise the head-to-head wins, and finally, qualify on goals because both were on 6 goals each.
The nervy decider took place at the Cape Coast Stadium on November 14, 2021. Andre Ayew's controversial penalty goal in the first half made the difference.
The playoff draw
Ghana during the draw was among four other unseeded nations who were paired with five seeded countries.
Ghana, therefore, was tied with West African rivals Nigeria as one of the five pairings.
L-R Nenad Glisic(Milo's interpreter) Milovan Rajevac, Jordan Ayew and Richard Kingston