Portugal play Ghana at the Brazilian National Stadium this evening and will run out onto the pitch knowing that they absolutely need a win if they are progress into the last sixteen. Pepe is available for selection again after serving out his one match ban, however Almeida and Postiga have picked up knocks and may not be available. Fabio Coentrao’s tournament is unfortunately already over. Sulley Muntari won’t be available for Ghana this evening after getting two yellow cards but Michael Essien may make an appearance this evening. Also injured for Ghana is the right back Daniel Opara.
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Both teams will have an eye on the Germany Vs. USA game at the Arena Pernambuco this evening as a draw there would send both Portugal and Ghana home. Portugal and Ghana both need to win however, to stand any chance of going through. Portugal are favourites even though by their own admission they have failed to resemble a team that looks anything like a 4th placed seed. They failed to impress against Germany, and with some signs of getting a little better against Ghana, they still look like a team that needs to freshen up it’s dressing room, with a place in the final looking one step too far for this squad.
Cristiano Ronaldo has blamed his own fitness and that of his team-mates and has shown increasing signs of frustration saying: “We’re probably just an average team. I’d be lying if I said I thought we were a top team.” A large stumbling block for the Portuguese is the extremely inferior goal difference they now have, thanks to the thrashing doled out to them by the Germans in a match that finished 5-2. This will make nudging the Americans in second place out of the way a really difficult task. Ghana, for their part will feel they stand a much better chance, even though they must beat the Portuguese and hope that the Germans win their game against the US. They have a better goal difference than Portugal and will go through in superior form, as their hard-working display against Germany in the second half showed.
The Ghanaian squad and their FA however are embroiled in a row over appearance fees which has thrown a bit of a blight on an otherwise important fixture in their history. According to reports, the Ghanaian FA are having to send $3m in cash by chartered jet as the Ghanaian players are refusing to have the cash wired directly to their bank accounts. A spokesperson for the Ghanaian FA said “President John Dramani Mahama has spoken directly with the players to assure them that they will be receiving their money.”
Ghana was also embroiled in further scandal earlier in the week when Ghanaian FA President Kwesi Nyantakyi was accused of accepting match fixing tasks, which he moved quickly to deny outright. All in all it has been a turbulent World Cup for Ghana, but should results go their way tonight, they will more than likely want to move on and forget such character-damaging things, and concentrate on finishing in as high a position as they can.