Two of West Africa’s most notable teams and fiercest rivals apart from the Ghana vs Nigeria fixture; Mali and Ghana will lock horns today in a 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier. Ahead of the match, Awakenewsroom Sports Desk presents a detailed break down of the teams historical performance as well as predictions for today’s game.
The Rivalry
Apart from Nigeria (54), Ivory Coast (43), Togo (34), no West African team has faced Ghana more than Mali (24) and in Africa, only Egypt levels that up with 24 matches. The first of the 24 clashes between Ghana and Mali dates back to 1960 when the Black Stars faced the Eagles in an international friendly. That first match ended in a heavy defeat for Mali as they lost 1-4 to the Black Stars.
Between 1960 and 1974, Ghana dominated their West African neighbours, claiming 3 more wins and only settling for one draw in 1962 during their third ever encounter. The prolific Black Stars scored 10 goals in the next 4 matches after their first meeting while only failing to score once in the 0-0 draw in 1962.
Mali claimed their first ever victory against Ghana in 1975 in the second leg of the 1976 African Cup of Nations qualifiers. The Eagles lost 4-0 to Ghana but returned home to oversee a 3-1 defeat of the Black Stars. Ghana still advanced to the next round on a 5-3 aggregate win. Dan Owusu scored all Ghana’s 4 goals in Accra and scored the consolation goal in Mali. However, Ghana did not qualify to the AFCON after falling against Morocco in the final round.
World Cup Qualification
While Ghana is gradually becoming a World Cup veteran after making 4 appearances at the Mundial, Mali is waiting to make its debut in the competition. The two teams first met in World Cup qualifiers in 2009 as part of the qualify series for the 2010 World Cup hosted in South Africa.
Ghana won 0-2 away in Bamako before settling for a 2-2 draw in Kumasi. Asamoah Gyan and Matthew Amoah scored the two goals in the 67th and 79th minutes respectively at the Stade 26 Mars, Bamako. Mali, however, took the lead in the return leg with Lassana Fane’s 23rd minute opener putting Ghana on stitches. Matthew Amoah equalized for Ghana in the 65th minute but Tenema N’Diaye shot Mali back in front just 3 minutes later. Anthony Annan snatched a point for Ghana with 7 minutes left to play. Ghana eventually topped Group D that also contained Benin and Sudan with 13 points. Mali finished third with 9 points, behind Benin who earned 10 points while Sudan took bottom with one point.
The Split
Since 2012, Ghana and Mali faced off 7 times in all competitions. The two teams faced off regularly in AFCON with their most epic encounters coming AFCON 2012 and 2013 where they played from the same groups. While Ghana won in the group matches, the Eagles beat the Black Stars in the third play-off in both tournaments. Jordan Ayew is the only Black Stars player from the 2012 tournament that is still in the team while there is none from the 2013 squad.
Over that period, Mali beat Ghana on 3 occasions, losing thrice and drawing once. The most recent meeting between the two was an international friendly in 2020 which Mali won by 3-0. Jordan Ayew, Thomas Partey, Gideon Mensah, Alexander Djiku and Lawrence Ati-Zigi started that game while Kamaldeen Sulemana came off from the bench. Mali captain Hamari Traoré was among the goal scorers.
Recent Form
Heading into the match, Mali has been in good form. The Eagles have so far played 8 matches in 2024, winning 5, drawing 2 and losing only one. They have scored 17 goals, conceded 5 and kept 4 clean sheets. In the World Cup qualifiers, they won one and drew one of their opening two matches.
Ghana on the other hand have played 5 matches, drawn 3 and lost 2. They scored 8 goals and conceded 10 while keeping one clean sheet, a 0-0 draw against Namibia in January.
Key players
Ghana is not short of talents with the likes of Thomas Partey, Jordan Ayew and Mohammed Kudus in the team. Black Stars captain Andre Ayew will miss the encounter after he was excluded by Otto Addo. Mali will also miss their skipper, Hamari Traore who is serving a 4-match suspension for misconduct towards a referee.
The Black Stars will, however, not be short of inspiration from the aforementioned trio while the presence of Fatawu Issahaku and Kamaldeen Sulemana would offer space on the wide areas. The return of Alexander Djiku is a big break though the Stars will miss the services of Daniel Amartey and Denis Odoi in defense.
Mali would be unhappy to do this without their talismanic defender and skipper Hamari Traore and Yves Bissouma but they will not be short of key figures either. They look up to Amadou Haidara, Falaye Sacko, Mohamed Camara and Aliou Dieng to light up the stadium while the return of Sekou Koita is a huge boost.
Match Details
The match will be played at the Stade 26 Mars in Bamako at 7 pm GMT. It is live in Ghana on GBC’s GTV and GTV Sports Plus which are also accessible on DSTV.
Prediction
This will be a close encounter but the Black Stars are tipped to edge out their hosts by a lone goal.