The maiden Africa Nations Championships (CHAN) has produced an intriguing pairing involving the Black Stars of Ghana and D.R.Congo just like we had in the 6th Cup of Nations in Ethiopia 1968.

In that tournament, Ghana beat Congo in the qualifying rounds and the two sides managed to sail through and met again in the final and the Congolese turned the scales and won the cup 1-0. Football analysts who insist that history does repeat itself in the game are not surprised that 41 years down the line, the two nations are meeting in another historic cup final under similar circumstances.

The 1968 cup final was historic because Ghana was making an unprecedented third time cup final appearance on the trot and a win would have given them permanent custody of the cup. For the records, ten years later Ghana won the cup for keeps courtesy a 2-0 win over Uganda in Accra through goals by Opoku Afriyie incidentally team manager of the current generation Black Stars.

CHAN is a maiden competition for home based national players and Opoku Afriyie would definitely like to inspire the team to make history by being the first nation to win the cup and thereby enabling him to swell his collection of historic football medals.

In Sunday’s cup final, Congo may have history on their side but it has been proved numerous times that there is no logic in football; otherwise on current performance the Black Stars should start as hot favourites to win the cup.

Congo were no match for Ghana in the group qualifiers, going down heavily 3-0. Congo had beaten Libya 2-0 but Ghana drew 1-1 with Libya depicting how mathematics doesn’t work in football.

If the tournament started on a dull note in the point of view of the home crowd obviously disappointed with the performance of The Elephants, the semi finals provided a lot of thrills and the stands were filled to capacity.

After a strenuous two hour goalless battle of nerves and sinews, the Black Stars made it to the final through the lottery of penalty shoot out at the expense of Senegal. When both sides completed the first round of the penalty session with a clean sheet and went for round two, my mind went back to CAN 92 final in Senegal between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire when the penalty kicks hit two digits. Luckily, Black Stars goalkeeper McCarthy made a stupendous save early enough and Kojo Poku followed up by scoring beautifully with his educated left foot to spare everybody the ordeal of a marathon penalty session.

In the other semi final match ,Congo were a completely transformed side against the amazing Zambians who had spoiled the party at the opening ceremony by beating the hosts 3-0. The Congolese made victory certain by half time and even though the Zambians pulled a goal back in the closing stages, the Congolese stood firm to win a return match against Ghana in Sunday’s grand finale which promises to be full of thrills.