Ghana Will Beat Togo -Essien

Ghana?s ace midfielder, Michael Essien has given the assurance in London that the Ghana Black Stars will beat their Togolese counterparts, the Sparrow Hawks in their friendly international billed for the Brentford Griffin Park Stadium on Tuesday August 15.

Despite their lacklustre debut at the World Cup finals in Germany, Essien cautioned that the Sparrow Hawks is a strong and talented side and could pose very serious problems for the Black Stars.

He was however optimistic that the Blacks stars could avenge the recent defeats they have suffered at the hands of the Sparrow Hawks if they can re-produce the form that propelled them to the second round of the just-ended World Cup finals.

?Though it is just a friendly match, it is going to be a very tough encounter because they have very good players like Adebayo, but we should be able to beat them if we can put our act together? said the strong Ghanaian midfielder who plays for the premiership champions, Chelsea.

Michael Essien was speaking to the media during a press conference ahead of the Black Star?s first outing after their splendid performance in their maiden World Cup appearance. Essien was flanked by Mr. Alex Nortey and Thierry Ogmba, Chief Executive and Project Manager of Star Meridan Sports Limited respectively, organisers of the match. Proceeds of the match would be used for the establishment of a Sports Medicine Centre for Ghana.

Essien said Ghana, formerly dubbed ?Brazilians of Africa? for its football prowess on the African continent , was finally beginning, after a long spell on the sidelines, to assert itself on the international scene and said that Ghana stood a good chance of winning the 2008 Africa cup of nations tournament.

He described Ghana?s participation in the world cup ?as an exciting and fantastic learning experience? and assured Ghanaians that the team would continue to work hard to build on its achievement at the next World cup finals scheduled for South Africa in 2010.