Appiah says Zambia result crucial to qualifying hopes

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Kwesi Appiah thinks Ghana's 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign will be greatly boosted if they beat Zambia on Saturday.

The Black Stars coach, who has high hopes of guiding the team to a third successive World Cup appearance has however described the clash with the reigning African champions as a tough battle.

Ghana arrived in Zambia Thursday afternoon after a five-day training camp in South Africa, amid a sense of high expectation surrounding the national team back home after their fine start to the qualifiers.

A 7-0 thumping over Lesotho last week in Kumasi has put them top but Appiah is aware that his side face a completely different opposition in the Chipolopolos.

“It’s really good considering that fact that we were playing at home and got a lot of goals and tactically they played according to how I expected them to play.

“Even though we got some goals, I am not looking at the goals, I am looking at how best we can perform in Zambia,” says Ghana coach, Kwesi Appiah.

Saturday's meeting will be the first between both nations after Zambia beat Ghana 1-0 in the semi-finals on their way to winning the Africa Cup of Nations tournament in Equatorial Guinea and Gabon.

For Appiah, the Chipolopolos, despite losing their opening game, 2-0 away to Sudan are still formidable, especially playing at home.

“Zambia is not a small team that we can just walk over them. It’s not going to be easy.

“We are prepared and must make sure that we get a good result from Zambia.”

Ghana are joint-leaders in the group ahead of Sudan by a better goal difference going into the weekend's matches.

Only one team from the four-nation group will progress to the third round where the ten teams that advance from the second round will be paired into five home-and-away series to determine the final sides that reach Brazil.