Ghana versus Nigeria: All you need to know about their previous meetings
Ghana versus Nigeria has always been a competition not on one front but several others from Jollof to music and sports. Top talents have emerged from these two countries in the past and at present, they both possess a plethora of great talents. The nations are considered as brothers in every sense and whoever qualifies from this encounter will have the support of the other but on the pitch, they must compete.
Many can confidently say if the two nations were given the chance to pick a single team for the tournament, they would prefer to create a pool and go as one nation rather than competing against each other. The draw was not favourable for them as they would have preferred to play against different opponents with the hope of both representing in Qatar.
But when was the first meeting between the two West African neighbours and who has the upper edge? We take you through all that ahead of the first leg clash between the two in Kumasi on Friday night.
Ghana and Nigeria first met in a football match on October 16, 1950, in Accra in a friendly match. Ghana was under its colonial name Gold Coast and the match ended 1-0 in favour of the then Gold Coast. The second meeting between them came exactly a year and four days later when they met in Lagos in the Jalco cup. Nigeria stepped up with a 5-0 demolishing of their Gold Coast counterparts.
Since then, they have met overall 56 times, eight of them with Ghana under the name Gold Coast and 48 of them under the current name, Ghana. In total Ghana have more than double the victories in those meetings as compared to Nigeria, with 25 wins to the Super Eagles 12. The two shared the spoils in 19 of those matches.
How do they perform on home soil?
Ghana has hosted their counterparts on 23 occasions and emerged victorious in 16 of those meetings with 6 being draws and one defeat. The only defeat in that space came in a friendly on December 15, 2002, in Accra.
Nigeria has on the other hand hosted Ghana on 20 occasions, securing 8 wins, 9 draws and three defeats. The last of those defeats came in a World Cup qualification on February 10, 1973, with the Black Stars earning a 0-2 victory. The match was abandoned in the 85th minute due to riots in the stadium and FIFA later awarded Ghana the 2-0 win which was enough to advance Ghana to the third round on 2-0 aggregate following a goalless draw in Accra two weeks later. It is worthy of note that before the game was abandoned, Ghana was leading by 2-3 thanks to a hat-trick from Kwasi Owusu.
On neutral grounds, the two teams have met on 13 occasions, six wins for Ghana, four draws and three wins for Nigeria.
World Cup Qualifiers
The two nations have met on eight occasions in four world cup qualification attempts. The first of such meetings was on August 28, 1960, in Accra and Ghana won by 4-1. The second leg on September 10 the same year ended 2-2 in Lagos, Nigeria.
A second attempt was in 1969 when they two met again. Nigeria won 2-1 at home on May 10 before travelling to Accra to earn a 1-1 draw a week later to advance to the next round of the qualifiers.
The third meeting was the 1973 meeting for World Cup 1974. As said earlier, that was the last time Nigeria lost at home to Ghana and the game was abandoned in the 85th minute when Ghana was leading by 2-3. The second leg in Ghana two weeks later ended in a 0-0 draw.
On March 11, 2001, Ghana hosted Nigeria in the World Cup 2002 qualification edition. The match ended 0-0 for the two teams that were placed in Group B alongside Liberia, Sudan and Siera Leone. The second leg in July ended 3-0 in favour of Nigeria on home soil. Nigeria qualified from the group for South Korea and Japan co-hosted tournament.
