Ghana hold Nigeria to draw

Nigeria's Victor Agali missed a few good chances

Ghana 0-0 Nigeria

Ghana's Black Stars have maintained their unbeaten 18-year record against West African arch-rivals Nigeria with a goalless draw in their titanic World Cup Group B qualifying game.

The result is a moral victory for Ghana's exclusively home-based team which many expected to be completely over-run by Nigeria's more experienced team, made up exclusively of foreign-based stars.

  Group B Table

1 Liberia P4 GD 6-4 Pts 9

2 Sudan P4 GD 5-3 Pts 9

3 Nigeria P4 GD 6-2 Pt 7

4 Ghana P4 GD 6-4 Pts 4

5 S Leone P4 GD 0-10 Pts 0

Ghana's World Cup dream still desperately needs a revival with a victory, after shocking defeats at the hands of Liberia (1-3) and Sudan (1-0)

Victory for Nigeria would have boosted their campaign to win the Group and represent Africa once again in Japan/Korea 2002.

The Nigerians also wanted to end an 18-year victory drought against their smaller but powerful West African arch-rivals.

David and Goliath

Nigeria defender Taribo West did not concede much room to the Ghanaians

The Ghanaians started the match with a very quick move that nearly caught the Nigerians napping.

The visitors probably had referee Felix Tangawarima to thank for ruling Adjin Tetteh offside.

Ghana had many shots on goal and could have easily won the match.

Ghanaian skipper Emmanuel Kuffour shot over the bar as he was put under pressure by Nigeria's England-based defender Taribo West.

Ishmael Addo, Charles Allotey and Charles Taylor all came close in the second half with long-range shots.

Eagles' chances

Nigeria's Victor Agali almost gave the Super Eagles the winner in the 78th minute, but his flying kick soared over an empty goal.

The Germany-based striker had earlier missed two chances in the first half with headers which were not powerful enough.

Although Nigeria showed they were much more experienced with every touch of the ball, the Super Eagles lacked the fire to win the game.

They rattled the Ghanaian defence in the second half after Julius Aghahowa and Tijani Babangida came on as substitutes.

In the process Aghahowa got into trouble twice as he was suspected of elbowing goalkeeper Adjei and midfielder Tetteh.

Aghahowa and Tetteh were shown the yellow card for the incident, after both players had received treatment.

Ghanaians were happy with the result, despite the Black Stars' fourth place standing in the group.