Five ‘dirty tactics’ employed by Ghana in Kumasi against Nigeria

Nigeria-Ghana games will always be tough at all levels and we witnessed the latest installment at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi last night.

Both countries played a goalless draw in the first leg of the African World Cup play-off in Kumasi on Friday.

But Ghana in their bid to be counted played a lot of psychological or ‘dirty tricks’ on Nigeria.

Here are five things SportsRation observed

1. The Ramp Provided at Kumasi Airport

The Super Eagles were literally made to jump out of their flight when they landed in Kumasi. You could see some of them sitting and coming down gently to avoid being injured, no way that wasn’t intentional.

The ramp provided at the airport was way too short and could have injured the Super Eagles.

Our darling Super Eagles had to be jumping down from their plane as the ramp provided at the airport in Kumasi was too small.

2. Beer Parlour Conference Table

This was definitely not a lack of adequate preparation from Ghana but a psychological attempt to touch the Super Eagles.

Never seen a table that low for a presser. Captain Ahmed Musa and coach Austin Eguavoen sat at the table like they were in the beer parlour.

3. The Nigeria Flag during the nation’s Anthem

Again, this is not because Ghana didn’t prepare or they were not ready for the game, it was all psychological.

They went to look for a satin flag that looks like a Nigerian flag. That is NOT our flag.

4. Packed a 40k Stadium with 70k fans

They were always going to do this after Ahmed Musa begged the NFF to pack the Abuja stadium with Nigerian fans.

The Baba Yara Stadium is said to be a 40k capacity stadium but somehow according to the commentator, there were 70k people in the stadium.

Remember only 10k tickets were given to the Nigeria Football Federation. They wanted to use the crowd in their favour, maybe it worked considering some calls from the referee.

5. The grass on Baba Yara Stadium was reportedly long

Another tactic to stop the flow of our game. William Troost-Ekong complained about the long grass on the pitch.

“We struggled to move the ball quickly because of the grass on the pitch.”

All five tactics and more were employed by Ghana to claim the much-needed win and advantage going into the second leg but it ended goalless.