UNITED KINGDOM: FOOTBALL/SOCCER - Senegal and Ghana prepare to face each other in London friendly

Senegal and Ghana will meet in a friendly match in London as a warm-up for the African Cup of Nations tournament. African football giants Ghana and Senegal say Tuesday's friendly match (August 21) will be an important test ahead of the African Cup of Nations in 2008. The two teams will meet at the New Den stadium, the home ground of English League Two side Millwall in south-east London where premiership stars Michael Essien of Chelsea, El-Hadji Diouf of Bolton Wanderers and Pape Bouba Diop of Fulham will star. "We have to win this game, it's very important because we have only this kind of friendly games to prepare for the African Cup of Nations. We would love to win, we know it will be very difficult," said Ghana's French coach Claude Leroy told reporters at a news conference on Monday (August 20). The match will be Ghana's first since its defeat in March against Brazil and will be part of a lead-up to the African Cup of Nations tournament which they are hosting next January. It will also serve as a warm-up for Senegal's African Nations Cup qualifier in Dakar to Burkina Faso on September "For us it's interesting to meet a team that does a lot in the African continent like Ghana, and who have already met teams like Cameroon, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, these are countries that are very important of the African continent football," said Senegal's coach Henri Kasperczak. Senegal striker El-Hadji Diouf will also play in the team's 20-man squad, having missed two African Nations Cup qualifiers in June. "We need to play against a good team like Ghana to know which way we want to go for the Africa Nations, that's why everybody is excited to play against Ghana. We want to win against Ghana and make the Senegalese people happy," said Diouf. Le Roy will also take the opportunity to try out younger players he hopes will form the future Black Stars including Ded Ayew, Yahay Mohammed and Mario Barwuah while he keeps his fingers crossed for victory. "Two very tough teams of the African continent, two of the favourites of the next competition. You know, the deal is very clear for me you know, the President of the Republic told me a few weeks ago that any result other than victory in the African Cup of Nations will be defeat. This means I know exactly what we have to do: it's to win," said Leroy. Ghana's Essien, Junior Agogo and Joe Tex Frimpong and Senegal's Diomansy Kamara are also expected to play this evening as the two West African rivals battle it out.

ITN Source | August 22, 2007

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