JAKARTA - After a tense five-goal drama in their first two 2022 World Cup games, Ghana hopes to reach the last 16 with little drama against Uruguay in the last match of Group H on Friday night.
However, Ghana must win this match to avoid being eliminated early from this tournament.
A draw is also enough for Ghana to accompany Portugal to the knockout phase. But getting a point requires a tough struggle from the West African team considering that anyone in Group H still has a chance to qualify for the last 16.
Uruguay was also required to win this match. But to get here, Uruguay had to polish himself again after performing poorly which left them held to a draw by South Korea and defeated by Portugal.
The duo of aging strikers, Luis Suarez and Edinson Cavani, and Darwin Nunez in new and talented faces. all had difficulty breaking into other goals in the previous two matches.
Coach Diego Alonso must choose whether to continue playing the three strikers or the time to overhaul the team by bringing in Facundo Pelistri and Maxi Gomez, who performed brilliantly for Uruguay.
If Ghana plays to hunt down a draw, then they will depend on whether Portugal can beat South Korea. Yet Korea is a team that is known to be fighting high in a proven way as they came from two goals down against Ghana before losing 2-3.
Victory also means Ghana has returned to defeat in the 2010 World Cup quarter-finals from Uruguay, when Suarez used his hands to block Ghana's potential winner in the additional minutes. This match ended on penalties.
Ghanaian coach Otto Addo insists he doesn't want to discuss the past. Instead, he made sure his team did their best to stop Uruguay from playing their 14th World Cup and had reached the last 16.
"They have very good strikers, very experienced and very compact, very good team," Otto Addo said as quoted by Antara via Reuters.
"Every game will be on the brink and we have to do our best to beat them," Adda continued, expressing confidence his team would win this match.
Uruguay himself has never been knocked out of the World Cup group stage in the last 20 years. Coach Diego Alonso knows his team needs special things to beat Ghana who has twice made the last 16 of three appearances in the World Cup finals.
Alonso insists he believes in the abilities of his players, but has to be careful with the team that knows Uruguay's strength and tries to stop it.
"We will use all the weapons we have," said Alonso. "We have to take off. The team has to relax playing."
Predictions of the first eleven players
Ghana (4-2-3-1): Lawrence Ati-Zigi; Tariq Lamptey, Daniel Amartey, Mohammed Salisu, Gideon Mensah; Thomas Partey, Salis Abdul Samed; Mohammed Kudus, Andre Ayew, Jordan Ayew; Inaki Williams.
Uruguay 3-4-3: Sergio Rochet; Jose Maria Gimenez, Diego Godin, Sebastian Coates; Guillermo Varela, Federico Valverde, Rodrigo Bentancur, Matias Vecino; Mathias Olivera, Darwin Nunez, Maximiliano Gomez Gonzalez.
Important statistics of both teams
Their only meeting before this occurred in the 2010 World Cup quarter-finals when Uruguay Luis Suarez was sent off for deliberately touching the ball with his hand. But Ghana took advantage of the penalty and was instead knocked out for losing on penalties.
Ghana has never had a clean sheet in their last nine matches in the World Cup tournament they have participated in.
Uruguay was unbeaten by European teams in five FIFA World Cup group stage matches before being beaten by Portugal.
Two Ghana's group stage matches resulted in a total of 10 goals consisting of five goals in itself and five goals conceded.
They played twice in a five-goal drama when they lost 2-3 to Portugal, but turned 3-2 to beat South Korea 3-2.
Uruguay, who has yet to score in this edition of the World Cup finals, has only failed to reach the knockout stages of his last six appearances at the World Cup.
The English, Chinese, Japanese, Arabic, and French versions are automatically generated by the AI. So there may still be inaccuracies in translating, please always see Indonesian as our main language. (system supported by DigitalSiber.id)
