Ghana hosts Angola in AFCON 2025 opener at Baba Yara Stadium on Thursday

The qualifiers for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) officially begin on Wednesday, September 4, across the continent. But for Ghana, the journey to Morocco commences a day after.

Ghana will play host to Angola in the opening game of the qualifiers at the Baba Yara Stadium with the fixture scheduled for the Baba Yara Stadium.

The Black Stars continue their rebuilding process under Otto Addo who makes a return to the team for a second stint after his previous experience in 2022. The former Borussia Dortmund man has been in charge for the last four games.

In that run, Ghana has only lost once (a 2-1 defeat to Nigeria in March), winning two and drawing the other one. The wins came in the crucial 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Mali and Central African Republic.

However, now all attention turns to the AFCON qualifiers with the team looking to start well; the first target being against Angola.

Head-to-Head

This will be the third meeting between these two sides in the last two years after they faced each other in the qualifiers for the last edition of the AFCON which was held in Cote d’Ivoire.

Antoine Semenyo scored the only goal of the game against the Palancas Negras in the first meeting at the Baba Yara Stadium before Ghana went on to hold Angola to a 1-1 draw on the road.

Prior to meeting in the qualifiers, Ghana beat Angola 1-0 at the 2010 AFCON.

Team News

As of Tuesday, 22 players had arrived in the Black Stars camp and trained for the first time at the Baba Yara Stadium. All 22 players were involved in the session with the only absentees being Elisha Owusu and Jordan Ayew.

The two players were expected to join the team later and be involved in Wednesday’s final session before facing Angola.

As confirmed earlier, Alexander Djiku withdrew from the squad due to an injury he picked while playing for Fenerbahce with Basel centre-back Jonas Adjei Adjetey coming in as his replacement. Forson Amankwah was also handed a late call-up to the team.

For the Palancas Negras, their contingent arrived in Kumasi on Tuesday and trained in the city as their preparations for the game near an end.

Ghana’s possible starting lineup

With Gideon Mensah and Djiku out of the squad, Addo is expected to make changes to his backline while Salis Abdul Samed’s absence also means alteration in the midfield.

Here is how we think the Black Stars could line up against Angola:

Ati-Zigi; Lamptey, Mumim, Salisu, Opoku; Partey, Ashimeru; Issahaku, Kudus, Thomas-Asante; Semenyo.

The game at the Baba Yara Stadium will kick off at 16:00 GMT.

Source: myjoyonline / Lawrence Degraft Baidoo 

Photo Credit: Images Image