Multimedia Sports Journalist, Gary Al-Smith, says despite the clear mismatch of Ghana’s team against Nigeria’s; taking into consideration the achievements of both teams’ strikers in their respective leagues, Ghana poses a dangerous risk to Nigeria’s World Cup qualification bid.

According to him, whereas most other games can be predicted, sports analysts are often left at a loss when it comes to Ghana-Nigeria games due to the high-adrenaline and high-emotions present.

The Black Stars of Ghana, he says, has particularly been a thorn in the flesh of the Super Eagles of Nigeria.

“Anytime we have faced them, 8 times out of 10 it’s very rare for us to present a team that are player for player in everything, or have more goals and stuff than Nigeria, mostly. And that is what makes the rivalry sweet, because we are the problematic small brother. We’re stubborn.

“They should be beating us black and blue all the time but, I mean, the numbers are there.  And even if you extrapolate it going back, Ghana has always been a problem for Nigeria,” he said.

“And the main reason, as I was saying on a Nigerian radio station earlier today, the reason why Nigerians did not want Ghana and Ghanaians did not want Nigeria is that these two countries – you see, if Nigeria is playing Senegal they can say 1 + 1 is 2, 2 + 2 is 4, if Ghana is playing Morocco, Egypt, we can put pen to paper and do calculations.

“But when these two cousins are playing, it’s just emotions. So somebody is not very good but he’s so charged that he’s doing something otherworldly and that is what makes the game,” he added on JoyNews’ PM Express Wednesday.

According to him, the high-emotion driven nature of the game has paid off in the hype surrounding Ghana-Nigeria games.

“The hype around this game is almost like the other 4 games are not existent. I mean, there is Senegal vs Egypt, the two teams that went to the AFCON finals and nobody is really [talking about them]. Algeria are playing, DR Congo are playing but everybody is talking about Ghana-Nigeria.

“The numbers of international media who have landed in Kotoka, yesterday and today…they’ve been in this studio, if you watch our other sister stations in Kumasi, Media Generale and others, just full of people from CNN, ESPN and they’re all here. They rather come here because of what it means,” he said.

Ghana and Nigeria will go head-to-head at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi on Friday in a bid to win a spot in the World Cup Tournament in Qatar.