Ghana will continue on the road to the 2026 World Cup with fixtures against Mali and Central African Republic in June. After a less-than-perfect start to the qualification campaign in Group I, the Black Stars need to get some momentum going.
Ghana kicked off the qualifiers with a dramatic late victory over Madagascar but then fell to a 1-0 defeat against Comoros. Only the top team from each of the CAF qualification groups automatically make it to the 2026 World Cup.
The four best second-place finishers will go through to a qualification play-off round. But after a disastrous Africa Cup of Nations campaign where they failed to get past the group stage, can Ghana turn things around in their next competitive matches?
2024: A Winless Year So Far
Ghana started 2023 brightly, with a five-match undefeated run of form. But things fell apart later in the year with friendly losses against Mexico and the United States, followed by their 1-0 loss away at Comoros in November in the World Cup qualifiers.
There are no odds out yet for Mali vs Ghana, but closer to the fixture, it will be fascinating to see how the odds-makers price this up. On the Russian website at https://legalbet.ru/there are expert ratings of the best legal bookmakers in the country, and the markets for this World Cup Qualifier at those betting sites are likely to list Ghana as the match underdog.
That’s because Ghana’s winless streak has continued through 2024 with a D3 L1 record from their four matches played. Troublingly for the Black Stars, they have conceded at least two goals in each of their last three-game
That’s a big part of the reason why they bowed out of AFCON 2023 so early. Ghana conceded two injury-time goals against Mozambique in their final group-stage game, blowing a 2-0 lead to send them crashing out of the tournament.
Mali vs Ghana
First up for Ghana is a trip to Mali on June 5th. This will be the first meeting between the two nations since a 2020 friendly which Mali comfortably won 3-0. Ghana do lead the overall head-to-head record with a W5 D5 L3 record but have won only one of their last four against this particular opponent.
Mali and Ghana have met in World Cup qualifiers before. They played each other during the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, with Ghana coming out on top thanks to a 2-0 road win before an exciting 2-2 draw back home.
What will give Ghana at least hope of avoiding defeat is that they are unbeaten in all five previous visits to Mali, with a W2 D3 record. Mali are in a better current position than Ghana at the moment, so the draw is not an unreasonable forecast which will likely be around the 3.65 odds range.
Mali Form
Ghana will face a Mali side who took four points from their opening two qualification matches - a 3-1 win over Chad and a 1-1 draw against Central African Republic. Mali also topped their group at AFCON 2023 earlier this year, before losing in the quarter-finals to eventual winners Ivory Coast.
Ghana vs Central African Republic
Three days after their trip to Mali, Ghana will be back on home soil against Central African Republic on June 8th. There has only been one previous match between the two nations, which was in the summer of 2022 which ended in a 1-1 draw during the African Nations Cup.
This does look like a far more winnable match for Ghana than the one against Mali. So it’s not unreasonable to expect Ghana to be an odds-on favourite at around 1.60 in the match outright market when the odds are released.
Ghana really should be pressing home their advantage. They need to grab every point available from their home matches in this group, which they already have to play catch-up in.
About the Central African Republic
There was a tough start to the qualification campaign for the Central African Republic, who, despite taking a lead in the 10th minute against Comoros in their opener, lost 4-2. They then produced a credible 1-1 draw at Mali in their second fixture. CAR failed to qualify for the 2023 AFCON tournament and have lost three of their last four matches.
Tough Path Ahead
It’s going to be an important period for Ghana in June. Their qualifying campaign needs to kick into gear and they have a lot to prove to themselves in that tough trip to Mali. Any kind of result against Mali will ease some pressure off the Black Stars going forward.
They need to also get a head coach installed as quickly as possible to help bring some stability and a roadmap for what is ahead. Former boss Chris Hughton was sacked after the AFCON 2023 failure.