Richard Ofori is no stranger to many of the opponents he'll come up against when Ghana host Bafana Bafana tonight, and he's wary of the South Africans and what they offer.
The Maritzburg United shot-stopper is expected to start for Ghana later tonight when they host Bafana at Cape Coast Sports Stadium, and as the only Premier Soccer League-based player in Kwesi Appiah's side, he'll no doubt have been giving his teammates some pointers to deal with the likes of Percy Tau and Co.
Bafana have a different head coach to when they last faced Bafana in a pre-2019 Africa Cup of Nations friendly a few months ago, but even though Molefi Ntseki has taken over from Stuart Baxter, the squad remains relatively unchanged – something Ofori is aware of.
He told Maritzburg's official website, "A new coach doesn't mean anything, it's a new coach, but the same players. I saw the team list, there are no new players - most of the players went to the 2019 AFCON, so it's basically the same team.
"They are a very strong team. Any country, when you are meeting South Africa, you know it's a very strong team… One thing I've noticed about Bafana is that they know how to play away games. We just need to play with confidence and at the end of the day we need to win the game, that's the most important thing."
Ofori also gave his thoughts on why this AFCON qualification was so key for the Black Stars, saying, "It's a very important game, not only for the players, but for the country… When we go the Cup of Nations, normally Ghana always go for the semi-finals, but we couldn't get there - it was quite disappointing for the country and we need to make amends, we need to try and win every game."
Ofori played all four of Ghana's games at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year, and will be hoping to make sure that he gets another chance at glory in two years' time by getting through their AFCON 2021 qualifiers, starting this evening.
