The Black Stars of Ghana made the best out of the Group F of the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt with a 2-0 win over the “Wild Dogs” of Guinea Bissau at the Suez Stadium, on Tuesday.
The results placed Ghana on top of Group F with five points and superior goal advantage over Cameroon, who also had five points.
The Stars will remain at Ismailia having topped the group and will await the outcome of matches in Group E.
However, it was a victory that did not come on a sliver plater as the Stars had difficult moments in the first half, which was a fairly balanced game with the Stars failing to have an early dominance over Guinea Bissau with keep Richard Ofori being forced to flick a powerful shot from Joseph Mendes, which subsequently hit the cross bar and bounced back to play, but was not utilised.
The Guineans were definitely not walk over for the Stars as the wing operations of Samuel Owusu and Kwabena Owusu were clipped in attack making it difficult for the Stars to penetrate and create decent chances.
Ghana’s midfield of Mubarak Wakaso and Thomas Partey were not strong to contain the slippery and quicker Guineans who posed a lot of threat to Ghana in the early minutes.
However, the last ten minutes of the first half, saw the Black Stars creating two clear chances that could have placed them in the lead.
Jordan Ayew latched onto a floated pass from Mubarak Wakaso, but his shot hit the lower side of the post and bounced back to play in the 36th minute.
Captain Ayew was also placed in a position to score, but his feeble shot in the 43rd minute was saved by the keeper Jonas Mendes and subsequent header from Kwabena Owusu from Samuel Owusu’s cross missed target.
The Stars improved their performance in the second half, with Jordan slotting in the first goal in the 46th minute, when he picked up a pass from Baba Rahman, shrugged off challenge from the Guinean defence, before bending the ball into the next for the opener.
With the urge to increase the tally, the Stars continued their search for more goals with Wakaso, Partey, taking time to try their luck at goal which was never materialized.
Coach Appiah sent in Afriyie Acquah in place of Kwabena Owusu in the 66th and this yielded some positive results as Partey was pushed forward and saw him connect a pass from Rahman once again to make the tally two.
This was after six minutes when Rahman raced into the defence of Guinea Bissau overcame a challenge from the defence to set up Partey in the 72nd minute.
Caleb Ekuban took over from Partey, with Kwadwo Asamoah replacing Samuel Owusu in the last ten minutes of the game.
However, this was not enough to make any significant impact for the team as four minutes of added time elapsed with the Stars going home a 2-0 victory.
Richard Ofori, Andy Yiadom, Baba Rahman, John Boye, Joseph Aidoo, Mubarak Wakaso, Thomas Teye Partey\Caleb Ekuban, Andre Ayew, Samuel Owusu\Kwadwo Asamoah, Kwabena Owusu\Afriyie Acquah and Jordan Ayew
GNA
