Ghana given brutal Nigeria warning before World Cup clash

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 Congoversus 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.

This article originally came from The Mirror