Ghana’s hopes of playing Olympic Games football for the first time since 2004 will hang on a victory against South Africa in Friday’s 3rd/4th place playoff match in the U-23 AFCON tournament in Egypt.
The Black Meteors face South Africa at the Cairo International Stadium to see which team gets the final ticket in Tokyo 2020.
Egypt and Cote d’Ivoire already have the other two by virtue of their place in the AFCON final.
Ghana suffered a painful 3-2 penalty shootout loss to Cote d’Ivoire on Tuesday and they will have make amends and beat South Africa for the place in Tokyo.
Head coach, Ibrahim Tanko, has said that he and his technical team have given the players the needed boost for the match and is confident that they will rise above the loss to the Ivorians and attain their objective.
“The semifinal defeat is history now. We spoke with the players and they know the importance of this match. There is one last chance to go to the Olympics and we will do everything not to miss it.”
His sentiments are shared by team captain, Yaw Yeboah who believes that going to Japan will be the way to reward themselves after going a very challenging qualifying series and the main tournament.
“It will be a very complicated and tough match. With all what we’ve done, it will be difficult to leave without anything at all. We will give our best to get this Olympic qualification.”
The match kicks off at 2:30pm Ghana time in Cairo and it precedes the final between Egypt and Cote d’Ivoire.
