The odd favours the Germans

From: William Ezah, GNA Special Correspondent, Pretoria, South Africa

Pretoria, June 21, GNA - Ghana's Black Stars will be seeking to make history when they face Germany on Wednesday, June 23, at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg.

A win for the Stars will be historical, because Ghana is yet to record any victory over the thrice World Champions at any level in association football.

The two countries have met four times at all levels, and the Germans have emerged victors on three occasions with the other ending in a stalemate, according to records gathered by GNA Sports.

The only clash between the two countries at the senior level was on April 1993, when the Germans white-washed the Black Stars 6-1 in an international friendly in Bochum.

The clash christened "the Bochum disaster", remains one of the heaviest losses in the history of the Black Stars, which was then led by legendary Abedi Pele Ayew.

Again, the two countries played a 2-2 draw in their group phase clash at the Australia 1993 FIFA Under-20 World Youth Championship. Samuel Osei Kuffour and Emmanuel Duah scored for the Black Satellites whilst Andre Breitenreiter and Carsten Jancker were on target for the Germans.

At the Under 17 level, the Germans recorded a double over the Black Starlets during the Korea 2007 FIFA U-17 World Cup.

The Germans beat the Starlets 2-1 in their group phase clash and completed the double with a 3-2 victory in the third-place playoff. The recent meeting between the two nations was at the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup in New Zealand in 2008, when the Black Maidens lost 2-3 to their German counterparts at the group phase.

Taking into consideration records and statistics and their bearing on current performances, then the Stars are the underdogs in the clash on Wednesday.

Fred Pappoe, Chairman of the Black Stars Management Committee has, however, downplayed the records saying "it is a different scenario". He was confident the Black Stars will scale through.