Ghana will look to take a giant step towards qualifying for the knockout stages of the World Cup for the first time when they take on Panama in Toronto tomorrow.
The Black Stars have never gone beyond the group stage in four attempts but looked good in qualifying, cruising to a first-place finish in Group I of the CAF preliminaries.
They have found the going tougher since, however, going winless in six friendly games.
Manchester City winger Antoine Semenyo is their star name and he is determined to give the fans back home something to shout about.
He told FIFA.com: “We’ve got a good management staff, we’ve got good background staff, and everyone is just so positive and confident, and that gives us the positivity to go out on the pitch and do what we need to do and win games. So, it plays a massive part and definitely goes a long way.Â
“I feel like we’ve got a lot of attacking talent and killer instincts. A lot of players that just want to get in positions and shoot and score. Defensively we’re solid as well.
“We’ve got such a good team, and we just need to prove to the world that we can be up there and compete with everyone else. I feel like that’s the only question right now, so once we do that, that’ll be the story written. I don’t want to jinx anything but I think, for me personally, getting through the group stage would be a start for us. I feel like we can go on and do special things.”
Panama are 34th in the world rankings, 39 places higher than Ghana and were also impressive in qualifying, topping Group A in the CONCACAF section.
This is their second World Cup appearance and they will hope to do better than in their first when they lost all three games in Russia in 2018.
Team news for Ghana v Panama
Ghana will be without experienced midfielder Thomas Partey, who was refused entry to Canada.
Panama will be hoping Adalberto Carrasquilla will be fit after missing the warm-up games through injury.
