Ghana carry Africa's World Cup hope

Nuremberg: African hopes of further progress in the World Cup will rest entirely on Ghana's shoulders barring a shock on Friday.

Of the five nations the continent sent to the tournament, Angola, Ivory Coast and Togo are already eliminated, while Tunisia, without a win since their finals debut in 1978, need to beat Ukraine to go through. Few expect them to do so.

"We are the only African country that has qualified. We are here to play our game, to try our best and lift the flag for Africa," said Ghana midfielder Michael Essien after his side's 2-1 victory over the United States on Thursday.

"At the end, we made it to the next round. It's good for the African nations. It's good for all the African nations. They're all looking up at us to see what we can do," he added, saying he believed the entire continent would be behind them.

Midfielder Sulley Ali Muntari, who should return from a one-match ban, shared Essien's view.

"We are all Africans. We are all together. I hope they are going to cheer with us," he said.

World Cup debutants Ghana are only the fifth African team ever to advance from the group stage following Morocco, Cameroon, Nigeria and Senegal, the latter on their World Cup debut four years ago.

Coach Ratomir Dujkovic has confidently claimed that Ghana can reach the semi-finals, one round further than the best African showings to date from Cameroon (1990) and Senegal (2002) who reached the quarter-finals.

However, they have a mountain to climb to get there, with Group F winners Brazil standing in their way.

Ghana face the world champions in Dortmund on Tuesday and will be without Essien, who picked up his second yellow card of the tournament on Wednesday.

Along with captain Stephen Appiah, he is the engine room of the side and his presence will be sorely missed against a Brazil team who moved up a gear on Thursday with a 4-1 win over Japan.

However, a jubilant Ghana were not letting such trifling thoughts spoil Thursday evening's celebrations.

"Everyone will enjoy this match... The Black Stars of Ghana are the Brazil of Africa so we are not afraid of anyone," said coach Dujkovic.

His strategy to thwart Brazil? "We will try to score three goals," he said.