Fifteen teams have already qualified for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations finals but the Black Stars of Ghana are not one of them.
Chris Hughton and his team have an important date against Central African Republic on Thursday September 7th at the Babayara sports stadium in Kumasi. The game represents the sixth and final qualifying game of Group E.
Even though Ghana lead the standings with 9 goals plus 4 goals as Angola take the second spot with 8 points plus a goal whilst Central African Republic have 7 points plus three goals , the Black Stars still need to win in order to avoid any last-minute disappointment at home.
As a reminder the following is the tie-breaking criteria of this qualification series ;
Points in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goal difference in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
Away goals scored in head-to-head matches among tied teams;
If more than two teams are tied, and after applying all head-to-head criteria above, a subset of teams are still tied, all head-to-head criteria above will be reapplied exclusively to this subset of teams;
Goal difference in all group matches;
Goals scored in all group matches;
Away goals scored in all group matches;
Drawing of lots
The scenarios that will see Ghana qualify as as follow ;
1.Ghana win against Central African Republic to go on 12 points in 6 games
2.Ghana draw against Central African Republic to claim 10 points in 6 games
3.Ghana lose against Central African Republic and Madagascar defeat Angola in Lubango (which is highly unlikely). Do not forget Madagascar are already eliminated with 2 points collected in 5 matches.
4.Ghana lose against Central African Republic and Angola draw against Madagscar. This outcomes will see Ghana get 9 points in 6 games and Angola finish with 9 points as well. The tie-breaking method here favours the Black Stars as they defeated Angola 1-o in Kumasi and drew 1-1 in Luanda. I am not sure the Ghana team would wish to qualify via this route.
However , if the Black Stars were to lose at home on Thursday and Angola win at home against Madagascar , then Hughton and his boys will not be in Ivory Coast in 2024.
