Muntari and his team-mates came within a whisker of becoming the first African nation to reach the semi-finals of the tournament when they were denied by striker Luis Suarez's infamous handball and Asamoah Gyan's subsequent penalty miss. But by that point, Fabio Capello and his players were already heading home after their humiliation at the hands of Germany in the previous round having secured their passage from the group stage in less than impressive fashion. Muntari's Ghana will get a chance to test themselves against a team he believes is still one of the best in the world when Ghana meet England at Wembley on Tuesday evening, and their failure last summer remains a mystery to him. The 26-year-old said: "England are one of the top nations and they play very good football. They have great players. "Everything about England is great and it was shocking that they didn't perform well in the last World Cup. "I still can't believe it because I didn't think England were going to go out like that. I can't describe it. "I can't say they played bad football, they were just unlucky at certain times. "Everyone expects big things from them and they had all the possibilities to do it, but they couldn't do it. "It's part of football, it's part of nature. Maybe next year is going to be theirs, the next two or three years they are going to win everything and they are going to be at the top. "They will become heroes again. Everyone has his time." The whole of Africa hoped their continent's time had come when Ghana threatened to sail into unchartered waters on a fateful night at Johannesburg's Soccer City. Muntari's strike in first-half injury time was cancelled out by Diego Forlan 10 minutes after the restart, and that took the game into extra-time. There were just seconds left on the clock when Dominic Adiyiah sent the ball towards the Uruguayan goal and as Ghana prepared to celebrate, saw Suarez block it with his hand. His dismissal and the resulting spot-kick gave Gyan the chance to fire his side into the last four, but his shot came back off the crossbar and although he was successful in the shoot-out which followed, it was the South Americans who edged through. Muntari, who lined up against Suarez, now at Liverpool, for Sunderland last weekend, insists he has not bitterness towards the striker, and that in the circumstances, he would have done the same thing. However, while he admits his mind often goes back to what might have been, he is confident Ghana's heroics sent out a message that African football in general is ready to challenge the traditional football power-bases of Europe and South America. He said: "We have done well in the past two World Cups, and not only Ghana. Now Africa is growing faster because we have a lot of great players who are playing for top clubs in Europe. "We are getting there and in a few years' time, African football is going to be top." England have never lost to an African side, although they have never before met Ghana, and the 28,000 visiting supporters who have snapped up tickets for this encounter will hope that statistic is addressed on Tuesday night. Muntari, who has spent the last week nursing a calf injury he picked up in the Liverpool game, said: "We have been looking forward to this game for a long time - even the Ghanaian people have been looking forward to us playing England for a long time. "It's coming true, so we are very happy about it and we are just looking forward to the day." English football is hugely popular in Ghana, where television coverage of the Premier League means that Capello's players are household names. Strong Ghanaian representation, with Chelsea's Michael Essien the leading light, has added to that, and Muntari, Gyan and John Mensah have brought Sunderland in particular a whole new distant following. Gyan has spent the last few weeks warning his English team-mates on Wearside what to expect from he and his compatriots, and Muntari admits the striker will take some stick if Ghana lose. He said: "Asa is the crazy one. If we lose, they will kill him. I will be okay because I joke less with them, but Asa, they are going to bury him. "We want to win, we want to play good football - that's the most important thing. We want to entertain the fans."
