Wales in talks with England’s group opponents Ghana over pre-World Cup friendly

Wales are in talks over a pre-World Cup friendly against England’s group rivals Ghana.

The Dragons’ World Cup fate will be decided next month, with Craig Bellamy’s side involved in the play-offs.

But Wales are planning a Cardiff send-off against Ghana – potentially featuring the likes of Manchester City’s Antoine Semenyo and Tottenham’s Mohammed Kudus – should they qualify, and a final warm-up game in the United States ahead of what would be their tournament opener against co-hosts Canada in Toronto on June 12.

“If we qualify, we’d like to have a proper send-off game at home,” Football Association of Wales chief executive Noel Mooney told the Press Association. “We were kind of annoyed we didn’t have one before the 2022 World Cup because it was so late in the window.

“There’s nothing finalised yet, but we’ve been talking to Ghana and that’s one we’ll probably explore a bit more.

“We’ve signed a cooperation agreement with the Ghanian FA in recent times, more to do with coaching education.

“But as part of that agreement we’ve said we’d like to play each other. They’ve got plenty of very good players and it would be a really interesting challenge for us.”

The FAW celebrated its 150th anniversary on Monday and is the third oldest federation in world football.

But Wales have only played African opposition once before – a 1998 friendly in Tunisia.

Mooney said: “Friendlies are a big conundrum in this (pre-World Cup) window, because whether you’re going or not to the World Cup has a huge bearing.

“But one of our ideas was that we would play against a team from Africa with a different style of football.

“Ghana would be a nice game in the summer at Cardiff City Stadium, but it’s not done yet.”

Wales host Bosnia and Herzegovina in a Cardiff play-off semi-final on March 26.

The winners will play Italy or Northern Ireland at home five days later for a place at the World Cup.

Ghana are in the same group as England, Croatia and Panama, with the Black Stars meeting Thomas Tuchel’s side at Foxborough on June 23.