Goran Stevanovic, lower left, the Ghana coach, puts his team through their paces in training for their match against Botswana.
Goran Stevanovic, lower left, the Ghana coach, puts his team through their paces in training for their match against Botswana.

Ghana are wary of African Cup newcomer Botswana



FRANCEVILLE, Gabon // Ghana, the four-time African Cup of Nations champions, are the overwhelming favourites to beat first-timers Botswana in the opening round of matches in Group D tonight, even if the country's vice-president is worried about an upset.

John Dramani Mahama warned Ghana's players at their training camp in Gabon that they should avoid complacency against Botswana, a team which are also weakened by injury on their debut in the competition.

Ghana have to do without the suspended defender Isaac Vorsah in Franceville, but the inexperienced Botswana squad will seriously miss Joel Mogorosi after the forward broke his arm at training last week just before the team travelled to the tournament.

Injury problems were also mounting for the Mali coach Alain Giresse before the Eagles face Guinea in the second match at Stade de Franceville on Tuesday night, with doubts over the Barcelona midfielder Seydou Keita and the striker Cheick Diabate.

"We will do whatever it takes to get the best performance," said Giresse, who had already been forced to alter his plans after the Toulouse defender Mohamed Fofana and the midfielder Kalilou Traore were withdrawn from Mali's squad with injury.

Even without Vorsah, Ghana are expected to still be too good for a Botswana team that surprised many by qualifying for their first Cup of Nations.

The Black Stars were visited at training on Sunday by Mahama, Ghana's football association said, with the team attempting to end a 30-year title drought at the continental competition.

"Every country came to this tournament on merit, so you should avoid complacency," Mahama told the players.

Ghana said every squad member apart from Vorsah was available for their opening game, including the Al Ain striker, Asamoah Gyan, who had been in a race to recover from a hamstring injury in time for the start of the tournament.

Goran Stevanovic, the coach, may still choose to rest Gyan against Botswana, however, with the brothers Andre and Jordan Ayew of Marseille, and Prince Tagoe all capable of filling in up front.

After Senegal fell to Zambia in their opening game and Ivory Coast were pushed hard by Sudan, the tournament has already seen strong performances from underdogs following a qualifying competition that produced a string of upsets. Botswana may be at their first major competition but they managed to qualify ahead of the former champions Tunisia and Togo, while Ghana are under pressure to deliver a long-awaited success. "The expectation is high and we know it won't be easy but we're hopeful and believe we can win it," John Mensah, the Ghana captain, said.

Keita's absence against Guinea after reported knee and ankle problems would be a blow to Mali's hopes of making a strong start and challenging Ghana as Group D's top team. The experienced midfielder is to guide a new generation of Mali players at the tournament in the absence of former stars such as the striker Frederic Kanoute and the midfielders Mahamadou Diarra and Mohamed Sissoko, who no longer play international football.

Student Of The Year 2

Director: Punit Malhotra

Stars: Tiger Shroff, Tara Sutaria, Ananya Pandey, Aditya Seal 

1.5 stars

Know your cyber adversaries

Cryptojacking: Compromises a device or network to mine cryptocurrencies without an organisation's knowledge.

Distributed denial-of-service: Floods systems, servers or networks with information, effectively blocking them.

Man-in-the-middle attack: Intercepts two-way communication to obtain information, spy on participants or alter the outcome.

Malware: Installs itself in a network when a user clicks on a compromised link or email attachment.

Phishing: Aims to secure personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers.

Ransomware: Encrypts user data, denying access and demands a payment to decrypt it.

Spyware: Collects information without the user's knowledge, which is then passed on to bad actors.

Trojans: Create a backdoor into systems, which becomes a point of entry for an attack.

Viruses: Infect applications in a system and replicate themselves as they go, just like their biological counterparts.

Worms: Send copies of themselves to other users or contacts. They don't attack the system, but they overload it.

Zero-day exploit: Exploits a vulnerability in software before a fix is found.

How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

Singham Again

Director: Rohit Shetty

Stars: Ajay Devgn, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Tiger Shroff, Deepika Padukone

Rating: 3/5

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