Our prediction for this match:
Stade Moulay Abdallah will host Tuesday’s all-African friendly between Morocco and Ghana. The Atlas Lions qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations without any difficulties, and, no doubt, head coach Vahid Halilhodzic will use upcoming friendlies to test as many players as possible. As always, a man to watch in the home team will be Chelsea winger Ziyech, who won the Champions League with the Stamford Bridge outfit last month.
The Black Stars, on the other hand, aim to build on a 3-1 win over Sao Tome and Principe. Ghana qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations as well, meaning that boss Charles Akonnor can breathe easier ahead of upcoming friendly games. Anyhow, a close encounter is on the cards in Rabat, and we predict that the two teams are going to play out a draw. It has to be noted that star midfielder Thomas Partey has been left out of the Ghana squad.
Highlighted Player (Nabil Dirar):
Moroccan footballer Nabil Dirar is a left winger for AS Monaco. The 30-year-old Casablanca-born winger arrived at Monaco in 2012 from Belgian side Club Brugge, where he spent four seasons. A mainstay with the Belgian side, Dirar increasingly stood out by his on and off pitch behavior as the Morocco international was known to get in frequent altercations with opposing players, but his own teammates which had often resulted in Dirar being sent to train and play for the reserves.
His €7.5 million sale to AS Monaco was the highest transfer fee ever received by Club Brugge. Nabil Dirar made a good use of the change of scenery by going on to become one of AS Monaco’s key performers. The 30-year-old winger racked up impressive nine Ligue 1 assists in 2015-16 season, prompting increased interest from European clubs.
Serie A giants Lazio were reported to be interested in the Monaco player, who will have an important role to play during his club’s Champions League participation.
Highlighted Team (Ghana):
Ghana are an African football team administered by Ghana Football Association. The Black Stars made their first ever appearances at the World Cup finals in 2006 and they were grouped with the likes of Italy, Czech Republic and United States. Ghana booked their place in the last 16, but they were outclassed by Brazil in the knockout stages of the showpiece tournament.
In 2010 the Ghanaians did remarkably well to make it to the quarter-finals of the FIFA World Cup and it has to be noted that they were more than unfortunate not to eliminate Uruguay in the knockout stages of the tournament in South Africa.
The likes of Asamoah Gyan, Richard Kingson, John Paintsil, Emmanuel Agymang-Badu, Sulley Muntari, John Mensah, Andre Ayew, Kwadwo Asamoah, Harrison Afful and Abedi Pele are Ghana’s most capped players, but, no doubt, Michael Essien is the most famous footballer who played for the Black Stars. The Ghanaians play their home games in white shirts, while the colour of the team’s away kit is red.