Ghana and Mali coaches announce Saturday's Africa Cup of Nations U-20 showdown

Ghana's badistant coach Amadu Nurudeen reiterated his team's wish to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations U-20 Cup semifinals in Africa against Mali on Saturday.

With one win and one defeat, the Black Satellites are about to be eliminated because nothing less than a win or draw in the third Group B game will send them packing their bags.

The qualification for the last four matches of the Afcon automatically guarantees a place at the FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Poland in three months.

"All countries want to qualify for the second phase of this tournament and our goal is to qualify for the World Cup," said Nurudeen at the pre-game conference on Friday.

"It's true that each team has three points, but we want Ghana to overcome this hurdle."

Ghana beat Burkina Faso 2-0 in their opening match before falling from the same score against Senegal.

Mali, meanwhile, lost 2-0 to Senegal in the first day before beating Burkina Faso 1-0 to restart their campaign.

"We have forgotten the first two games," said coach Manoutou Kane.

"We did not do well against Senegal and Burkina, we won despite the fact that we did not play well.

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"But now we are very focused on the match against Ghana.

"Our goal is to play five games in this tournament and we have not forgotten it."

In group A, Nigeria and South Africa have already booked their place in the last four, and even in the World Cup.