U-23 Africa Cup of Nations: Black Meteors to leave Ghana for Egypt today

Ghana’s U-23 side, Black Meteors are expected to depart the country this afternoon for Egypt to continue their preparations for the upcoming U-23 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) to be held in Morocco.

The team is set to board their flight at 1:00 pm local time and pitch camp in the North African country where they will continue their training and fine-tune their strategies for the highly anticipated tournament.

The team made up of  22 local-based players began intensive preparation at the Ghanaman Soccer Center of Excellence in Prampram a few weeks ago.

However, the coach of the side, Tanko last Friday released a provisional list of 29 players which includes 14 foreign-based players who are all expected to join the team inside Cairo where they would engage in a series of preparatory matches to keep them in shape ahead of the competitions.

The team earned qualification after a 2-1 aggregate victory over a two-legged qualifier against Algeria in March and has since then been preparing ahead of the competition.

Ghana has been drawn into Group A alongside hosts Morocco, Guinea, and Congo host Morocco as well as Congo and Guinea following a draw conducted last month.

The Black Meteors will kick off their campaign against Congo on June 25, followed by matches against Morocco and Guinea on June 27  and June 30 respectively.

The tournament serves as a qualification grounds for the next Olympic Games to be held in Paris next year as Ghana aims to make a return to the global competition after a 20-year hiatus.

They narrowly missed out in 2019 when they lost on penalties to South Africa in the third-place play-off match.