Ghana line up Australia friendly

Ghana will play Australia in an international friendly in London next month.

The Black Stars and the Socceroos, who were both eliminated at the second-round stage of the World Cup in Germany, will meet at Queen's Park Rangers' Loftus Road ground on 14 November.

The match is an important test for Ghana, who have no competitive match until January 2008, when the country hosts the African Cup of Nations finals.

Australia coach Graham Arnold said the match would be an ideal chance for the European-based members of his squad to meet ahead of their debut in the Asian finals to be co-hosted by Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia next year.

"Our eyes are firmly on achieving success at the Asian Cup and matches like the one against Ghana are going to be crucial to our preparations," he said.

"They are a very tough opposition who showed during the World Cup they are capable of being one of the best sides in the world."

Australia qualified as seeds for the finals, from 7-29 July next year, after topping their group in their first qualifying campaign since switching to the Asian Football Confederation from the Oceania movement.