Ghana Black Sharks to face Ivory Coast in Afcon 2017 opener

The national Beach Soccer team, Ghana Black Sharks will kick off their continental campaign against former champions Ivory Coast in the opening group A fixture of Afcon 2016 in Lagos.

The Sharks made it to the tournament after a convincing 17-3 aggregate victory over the Harambee Stars of Kenya.

The Sharks who are yet to commence camping start for the tournament will be hoping to put up a better performance than they did in their maiden edition in Seychelles. Ghana as seeks to come out of the group of death consisting of host nation Nigeria, North Africa’s highest ranked side, Egypt and beach soccer powerhouse Ivory Coast.

To have a realistic chance of making it to the knock out stage, the Black Sharks would first confront Ivory Coast (13th December) followed by
Egypt (14th December) before squaring it off with hosts Nigeria over three hectic days.

Many regard the Black Sharks as underdogs in the group but coach Daniel Kotey will be hoping to upset the big boys to secure a ticket to the 2017 Beach Soccer World Cup in the Bahamas.

The format for the Beach Soccer AFCON is such that the round robbin group winners and runners-up advance to the semi finals where the two winners from the semis will qualify for the World cup.

Formed in 2013, the Sharks have done incredibly well to merit a 7th position by CAF in Africa and 47th worldwide by FIFA.

There would also be huge pressure on Ghana to excel after in impressive debut tournament last year in Seychelles where Alexander Adjei took the goal king title with 16 goals.