Comparing Avram Grant to Mozambique's Xavier

Ghana will host Mozambique in Accra on Thursday afternoon in the first of two matches in the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

Israeli gaffer Avram Grant and Mozambican-born Portuguese trainer Abel Luis da Silva Costa Xavier will be on the touchlines.

GHANASoccernet.com compares the two coaches ahead of the qualifying games ahead of the double header.

We first look at Mozambique's newly appointed coach Abel Xavier.

Abel Xavier retired as footballer in 2008 after having stints with clubs in Portugal, Turkey, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, England and USA.

He also featured 20 times for the Portugal national team between 1993 and 2002.

Abel Xavier began his managerial or coaching career at Olhanense in the Portuguese Super Liga in July, 2013 to October, 2013.

He was appointed as the head coach of Farense in December 2014 but left his position in May, 2015.

The former Liverpool player joined lower tier side Desportivo Aves July, 2015 but was fired two months later after series of bad results.

On the 26th January, 2016, Abel Xavier was appointed the head coach of the Mozambique national football team.

He started working as the coach of the Mambas on 01 February 2016.

Ghana will be his first competitive test as the trainer of Mozambique.

Avram Grant was named the head of coach of Ghana on 27 November, 2014 after 7 years of managing several clubs in and across Europe basically Israel, England and Serbia.

Ghana is the second national team the Israeli has coached since he started working as a manager in 1972.

He was head coach of the Israeli national football team from 2002 to 2006.

Grant spent 1972 to 2002 in managing top clubs in his native Israel winning several trophies.

He was appointed manager of English side Chelsea FC in 2007 as a replacement for Jose Mourinho.

He guided Chelsea FC to their first ever UEFA Champions League final in 2008.

He continued his stay in England as manager when he joined Portsmouth from 2009 to 2010, West Ham Unted between 2010 and 2011.

The Ghana gaffer was then appointed as coach of Serbian side Partizan Belgrade in 2012 where he won the Serbian league as manager.

In 2014, Malaysian club BEC Tero Sasana appointed Avram Grant as technical director before being given the Ghanaian top-coaching role.

He was at the helm of affairs when Ghana lost to Ivory Coast on penalties in the AFCON 2015 final in Equatorial Guinea.

Grant's record as the head coach of Ghana stands at 11 matches played, 6 wins, 2 draws and 3 losses.