The rain soaked friendly between Ghana and Austria ends in a tie as both sides share the spoils in the 1-1 drawn game.

Ghana extends her unbeaten run to six as a late equalizer by Sulley Muntari saved the blushes of the Black Stars against Austria at the UPC-Arena in thrilling Graz Saturday evening.

Both sides, hosts of two separate continental football tournaments next year took advantage of the busy weekend of qualifiers on the African continent and Europe to fine-tune their preparations for the challenges ahead.

Ghana missed Michael Essien, Stephen Appiah and Junior Agogo through injuries.

The Black Stars suffered another injur on the day as goalkeeper, Sammy Adjei was taken off after a clash with Austria's Roland Linz in the first half.

Adjei was sbstituted by regular goal tender, Richard Kingson.

In desperate need of a win, Austria got on the board early as the Euro 2008 co-host shot ahead after 55 minutes through Rene Aufhauser.

Ghana accepted the challenge and pushed for the equalizer in the rather difficult weather conditions.

Sulley Muntari and Laryea Kingson rolled out Ghana’s play and the Austrians cleared their lines well.

Michael Helegbe made his Black Stars debut when he came off the bench for Haminu Draman in the second half. The Olympic team captain enjoyed a good game on his debut.

But as the minutes ticked, the home side looked like coasting to a win and with two minutes remaining on the clock, Sulley Muntari tied the game for Ghana.

Austria thus maintain their unbeaten run in five games.

But Ghana have also enjoyed a good run since a round of 16 exit from the World Cup, going unbeaten in five friendly games with new coach Claude Le Roy seeing the Black Stars through four of those games.

The game against the Austrians was the second friendly for the Black Stars this year after their win over West African rivals, Nigeria in a similar fixture in February.

Ghana's next encounter is with Brazil on March 27 and it comes almost nine months after the South American nation edged out the Black Stars in the second round of last year’s World Cup.

Both matches are expected to boost the Black Stars’ preparations towards the African Cup of Nations in 2008.

By virtue of being host of the 2008 African Cup of Nations finals, Ghana would not be playing any competitive match until January 2008, when the tournament kicks off in Accra but would be continuing with preparations with a series of matches lined up.


Ghana line up: Sammy Adjei/Richard Kingson, John Painstil, Hans Sarpei, Francis Dickoh, John Mensah, Eric Addo, Laryea Kingson, Derek Boateng/Alex Tachie Menson, Sulley Muntari, Asamoah Gyan/Peter Ofori-Quaye, Haminu Draman/Michael Helegbe