The Local Black Stars of Ghana edged out Gambia in their opening game against Gambia thanks to a late penalty goal by Hearts of Oak defender Vincent Atingah and the now the reward for Maxwell Konadu’s side is being put in the same group “of death” as Nigeria , Guinea and Mali.
ALSO Note – Ghana hosted and won the WAFU Cup of Nations in 2013 when 8 teams competed.
Nigeria were stretched by Sierra Leone and needed the last 5 minutes to finally break a resolute Leone Stars defence to advance to the group stages while Mali comfortably accounted for minnows Mauritania.
Meanwhile Niger who shockingly eliminated huge favorites Burkina Faso are in the same favorable group as Senegal, Cote d’Ivoire and Benin.
Preliliminary round
9th September 2017
Ghana 1 Gambia – Vincent Atingah 90th
Senegal 0 Liberia 0 – Senegal won 5-0 on PSO
10th Septermber 2017
Guinea 2 Guinea-Bissau 1 – Sekou Keita 32nd, Abdoulaye Camara 40th / Gilson Correia 15th
Burkina Faso 1 Niger 2 – Dah 59th / Boubacar Soumana 34th, Idrisa Halidou 71st
11th September 2017
Mali 3 Mauritania 1 – Mandala Konte 30th, Moussa Kone 88th, 90th / Samba Cheikh 36th
Nigeria 2 Sierra Leone 0 – Moses Okoro 85th,Moses Peter 87th
12th September 2017
Ivory Coast 0 Togo – Ivory Coast won 4-3 on PSO
Benin 2 Cape Verde 0 – Ibrahim Oguolola 63rd, Agnide Osseni 90th
Group Stage
The competition enters the group stage with games commencing from Thursday.
Ghana, Guinea, Mali and Nigeria are put in Group A touted as the group of death while Senegal, Niger, Cote d’Ivoire and Benin are the teams in Group B.
The next round of matches at the 2017 WAFU Cup of Nations will take place at Cape Coast Sports Stadium on Thursday, September 14 with Group A in action – Mali will take on Nigeria at 15h00 (GMT) and Ghana will face Guinea at 18h00 (GMT).
Follow the writer of this story Gariba Raubil on twitter @GRAUBIL
