Ivory Coast and Ghana set for AFCON qualifying opener

Ivory Coast and Ghana were scheduled to open their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying campaigns in Group C on September 24 in Bouake, with Ghana coach Carlos Queiroz saying his team intended to compete despite several reported absences. The match was set for Stade de la Paix, but the available reports were previews and did not establish a result or confirm the starting lineups. Queiroz said Ghana had come to Bouake to deliver rather than treat the trip as a learning experience. At a pre-match media conference, he expressed confidence in the players available to him and said the squad had the quality and motivation to perform. Those remarks were reported by the Ghana Football Association. Reports said Ghana would be without captain Jordan Ayew, Mohammed Kudus and Antoine Semenyo because of injury-related withdrawals. The repeated accounts of those absences were based on shared reporting, and the supplied material does not include separate medical confirmation. Queiroz’s confidence in the remaining squad comes as Ghana seeks to return to the Africa Cup of Nations after missing the previous finals. Ivory Coast were set to play at home in Bouake.