Black Stars to battle Libyans

...for supremacy in World Cup/African Cup qualifiers
Ghana’s senior national soccer team, the Black Stars will on Friday engage the Greens of Libya in Tripoli in their second leg joint World Cup, African Nations Cup qualifiers.

The game will serve as a battle for supremacy in Group 5 as Ghana and Libya have 9 points each, with Ghana leading with a superior goal aggregate.

The Stars in the first encounter thrashed the Greens by 3-0 in Accra and the Libyans may be eager to avenge that defeat.

Black Stars new coach, Milovan Rajevac, a Serbian, has called back Stars’ inspirational captain Stephen Appiah, who suffered knee injury last November and has been out of action since.

The Stars will line up players such as Michael Essien of Chelsea, Sulley Ali Muntari of Inter Milan, Haminu Dramani of Lokomotiv in Russia and Quincy Owusu-Abeyie of Birmingham City.

Others on the line-up include Manuel Junior Agogo of Zamalek in Egypt, John Paintsil of West Ham United in England, Laryea Kingston of Hearts in Scotland and goalkeeper Richard Kingston, who is currently a free agent.

The match will serve as the first crucial international encounter for the Serbian coach, who took over from care-taker local coach Sellas Tetteh and expectations among football fans in Ghana are high for the Stars to claim the three points in Tripoli to advance to the next stage.