Coming into the World Cup at No. 61 in the FIFA world ranking, Ghana is the lowest-ranked nation participating in Qatar—and it’s mostly down to the tumultuous road to getting there. Ghana was eliminated during the group stage at the African Cup of Nations—its worst finish in the tournament—with a loss on the final day to AFCON debutant Comoros. After that debacle, Ghana fired manager Milovan Rajevac just four months into his tenure and brought in current coach Otto Addo.
Under Rajevac, Ghana hardly reached the African World Cup qualifying playoff—the Black Stars were tied on points and goal differential with South Africa and needed a tiebreaker of goals scored to advance. Against Nigeria, Ghana drew both legs of the playoff but advanced on a 1–1 aggregate thanks to away goals. It’s safe to say that their arrival in Qatar comes through the most tenuous route, yet Ghana earned its spot.
Under Addo, Ghana has convinced several players to swap allegiances after coming up through European youth systems (Tariq Lamptey and Iñaki Williams made their Ghana debuts over the last few months.) In Qatar, Addo will have to get the new arrivals to mesh with a few veteran core that includes Thomas Partey and André Ayew.
