Education and Sports Minister Yaw Osafo Marfo has cautioned the senior national team the Black Stars to be wary of a backlash from African soccer powerhouses, Nigeria and Senegal at next year’s African cup of nations in Egypt.

Ghana was last night drawn in group D of the 2006 edition of the tournament along with Zimbabwe, Nigeria and Senegal.

With both Nigeria and Senegal failing to meet the qualifying grade for the World cup next June, the sports minister says the pair would seek to make amends at the Nations cup tournament.

Osafo-Marfo is tagging Thursday's groupings as the most difficult among the four others says, "the pairing will in no doubt present us the needed testing grounds to prove our worth to the rest of the world" before the soccer Mundial in Germany next year.

Reckoning the level of opposition the West African brothers, Nigeria and Senegal would present to the Stars, the minister remained buoyant that the challenge would rather manifest the best in the Stars when the bi-annual championship commences on January 20.

Osafo-Marfo said he envisages that the Ghanaians would seize the moment and top the group in its quest to prove that their qualification to Germany was no fluke.

"Nigeria and Senegal would understandably go the extra mile to prove why they should have been at the World Cup with performances that will discredit us. But in the midst of all that, I'm sure the Stars has what it takes to top the group and perform better in Egypt.

"Our biggest advantage and challenge comes with defeating all the teams to assure all and sundry that we've arrived and poised to regain our rightful place".