The Black Stars of Ghana will be looking to bounce back from their embarrassing African Cup of Nations qualifying campaign when they face lowly Chad in Accra on Friday 21st March 2025.
Chad who are ranked 176 out of 210 in the FIFA world rankings is Africa’s sixth worst team ahead of Somalia, Seychelles, Djibouti, São Tomé and Príncipe, and Mauritius.
This should be an easy win for the Black Stars and allow them to restore some goodwill and confidence after the failure to qualify for the next AFCON, but questions still linger over Otto Addo’s ability to lead the Black Stars to North America next summer for the 2026 World Cup.
The Black Stars’ AFCON qualifying debacle was a harrowing experience for Ghanaians. Ghana managed to score 3 goals across six games and conceded seven goals and registering three draws and three defeats.
World Cup qualifying has gone much better with three wins from four games with seven goals scored but five conceded. This hints at a defensive fragility which needs to be addressed.
Otto Addo’s side have kept just one clean sheet in the last year and that was against a Sudan team that were very happy to get a point in Accra. This inability to keep goals out has exacerbated the attacking issues I will touch upon soon.
Addo may have a reasonable excuse. He has been unable to call upon his seemingly first-choice backline of Alexander Djiku and Mohammed Salisu only thrice in the last year. Incidentally, this was the only combination that managed to keep a clean sheet.
Another issue is the change from a back four to a back three or back five that Addo regularly employs. For the most part, it has failed as a gambit as the side have failed to keep clean sheets in any of the games that Addo has used the back three in the last year.
The defence needs to be much better especially since the attack is tragic. Ghana have conceded 12 goals in their last 10 qualifiers (World Cup and AFCON). This is nowhere near good enough the attack has not been good enough to compensate.
Goal scoring has been a struggle for this side. In the last 10 qualifiers, Ghana has scored 10 goals, two fewer than they have conceded and the only player with more than a goal is Jordan Ayew. Considering that in club competitions with Leicester City he might be the least potent attacker, is a concerning situation.
Otto Addo’s inability to get the best out of our attackers is one of his greatest failures. This season, Inaki Williams has 10 goals and nine assists, Ernest Nuamah has six goals and two assists, and Antoine Semenyo has nine goals and five assists, they are regularly contributing at club level but have two goals between them in the last 10 qualifiers.
This is concerning and hints at a need to change our attacking structure as we are not getting the best out of these talented attackers.
Despite this, Ghana should be able to beat Chad. Excluding two wins in their last 12 games with both coming against Mauritius, Les Sao have scored two goals and conceded 17 in the other 10 games losing seven of them in the process.
Chad will be without their record appearance maker and goal scorer Ezechiel N’Douassel who is no longer part of the national team set-up despite still being active meaning the task is made more difficult than it already is.
The road to 2026 continues on Friday and Les Sao offer an easy chance at improvement for a Ghana side that has been underperforming so far. If Otto Addo cannot manage a convincing win here his time as Black Stars coach should be coming to an end sooner rather than later.
