A high-ranking government official has warned that Nigeria intend to "beat the s***" out of Ghana as the two bitter rivals face off with a coveted spot at the World Cup on the line.
Qualifying for the Qatar tournament is nearing its climax with the final fixtures for nations in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) taking place over the next week. Liverpool colleagues Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane are among the Premier League stars involved as Egypt and Senegal meet over two legs on Friday and Tuesday.
The other final-round matches include Cameroon versus Algeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo versus Morocco and Mali versus Tunisia, but the tie with the most bad blood concerns Nigeria and Ghana. The West African countries are two of the most successful in the continent's history having shared seven Africa Cup of Nations titles between them (Ghana four, Nigeria three).
Their rivalry is regarded as one of the most heated in CAF and dates back to their first meeting in a friendly in 1950. They have squared off in World Cup qualifiers on four occasions previously and, notoriously, their first-leg encounter in 1973 was abandoned when fans protested against Congolese referee Paul Nkounkou. Ghana were winning 3-2 at the time and would go on to reach the 1974 World Cup in West Germany.
Nigeria and Ghana's most-recent qualifying clash came back in 2001, when the former claimed revenge with a 3-0 aggregate victory to reach the tournament in South Korea and Japan the following year. Remarkably, the two foes have not faced each other in any competition for over 10 years, last contesting a friendly which ended goalless at Watford 's Vicarage Road in 2011.
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Emotions run high whenever the two nations meet on the pitch and Nigeria's Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Sunday Dare, has upped the ante ahead of the two-legged tussle. He issued an X-rated warning to the Black Stars while visiting the Nigeria squad as they trained in Lagos on Tuesday, saying: "We are not going to Ghana to draw. We are going to beat the s*** out of them. Super Eagles should just go all out. There's insurance for their legs now."
Dare's "insurance" remark appears to imply Nigeria's players will be well looked after in the event they pick up an injury in what promises to be a highly physical affair. With that in mind, Leicester fans may be relieved to hear Wilfried Ndidi has withdrawn from the squad after suffering a knock to his knee last week.
However, Foxes striker Kelechi Iheanacho and Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey are expected to feature for Nigeria and Ghana respectively. The Super Eagles travel to Ghana on Thursday ahead of the first leg the following day, while the second leg will take place in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, on Tuesday.
