Ghana Black Stars begin their road to Russia 2018 with a qualifier against little known Comoros.  Comoros beat southern African side Lesotho on the away goal to qualify for the second qualifying round. They are not well known in the soccer terrain, but what 10 things do we know about them?

1.    The Comoros national team is nicknamed the Les Coelecantes. It is referred to as The Coelacanths in English. Coelacanths is a type of fish which is primarily found in and around the Comoros Island.

2.    Les Coelecantes play their home matches at the Stade Said Mohamed Cheikh in Moroni. The Stadium was opened in 2007 and was named after former Comoros president Said Mohamed Cheikh.

3.    The Comoros team are currently ranked 177th in the FIFA rankings. They moved 16 places up after their away goal’s victory over Lesotho last month. They are ranked 50th in Africa only above Seyechelles, Eritrea, Somalia and Djibouti.

4.    The Comoros Football Federation was formed in 1979 but became a full member of CAF in 2003 and FIFA in 2005.

5.    The Comoros team played their first ever qualification matches for the World Cup and Cup of Nations in2007 against Madagascar. They are yet to qualify for the World Cup or the African Cup of Nations.

6.    The jersey colour for the Coelecantes is green.

7.    They are coached by French born Amir Abdou. He has been in charge of the team since January 2014.

8.    They are captained by El Fardou Ben Nabouhane. The forward made his debut in their friendly against Burkina Faso in 2014 and currently plays for Greek giants Olympiakos .

9.    Their most capped player is Kassim Abdullah who plays for French side Evian Thonon Gaillard. He has well over 20 caps for his country. He is teammate of Ghana center back Jonathan Mensah.He also has the most goals for his country with seven goals to his credit.

10.    Their 23 man squad called up to face Ghana comprises of 17 French based players, four home based players and one each from Greece and Sweden. Out of the 17 called up from France, only one of them plays in the French Ligue 1.

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