By Benjamin Willie Graham
Ghana suffered a humiliating group-stage exit at the Africa Cup of Nations after the four-time Champions were beaten by debutants Comoros.
Victory would have been enough for the Black Stars to progress as one of the best third-placed teams but a double from Ahmed Mogni gave the Comoros their first Africa Cup of Nations win in a Group C encounter that saw Captain Andre Ayew sent off for the four-time champions.
The Comoros took a shocking lead in the fourth minute as a quick break was finished off by El Fardou Ben Nabouhane with a confident strike into the bottom- right corner of the posts. Ghana’s problems deepened when Captain Dede Ayew was given the marching orders as they pressed for an equalizer.
The Ghanaian Skipper was deemed by VAR to have fouled goalkeeper Salim Ben Boina in an effort to prod home a rebound from teammate Kamaldeen Sulemana’s shot.
The advantage of the extra man at the Comoros’ disposal became telling just after the hour as poor goalkeeping by Joseph Wollacot presented Mogni with the chance to double their advantage through an assured finish.
Substitute Richmond Boakye Yiadom provided an instant response when he steered home a header from a right-wing corner. The turnaround looked to be on when Defender Alexander Djiku tapped in a flick-on as the Comoros defence failed to deal with the same set-piece with thirteen minutes remaining.
A decisive fifth goal arrived but it was Mogni of the Comoros who had the final laugh as he was presented with a simple finish after an excellent team work down the right to condemn Ghana to a humiliating exit.
Our Correspondent Benjamin Willie Graham spoke to some sports journalists after the match.
Reaction from some Journalists
According to him, the journalists covering the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon expressed shock at what they described as an abysmal performance by Ghana’s Black Stars in the 33rd Africa Cup of Nations ongoing in Cameroon.
”It has been abysmal as at now I am very shattered I don’t know what happened we were in a group with Comoros, Morocco and Gabon and we still couldn’t qualify as third best this is serious this is our worse performance in 20 years I don’t remember the last time we played AFCON and we never won a game. This is a terrible, look at how we are even struggling to draw with Comoros”.
”I must say, as a journalist I’m a bit deceived because Ghana as an Anglophone country if you can say that we know the performances of Ghana we thought that Ghana could at least pass the stage of group stage and secure a good place for the competition but Ghana stay away from the competition we are almost deceived because we at least Know that Ghana was supposed to be among the countries that are going to reach the final stage ”.
”Not the best I wasn’t expecting this I knew the team was not up to it, but I didn’t expect us this poor verses new side Comoros and they been impressive but I expected the Black Stars to step out their game in this final game maybe the red card did not help but it been very poor.”
”Despair, hopeless frustrations is my mood I couldn’t believe that Black Stars could get to this stage in fact I am one of the Cameroonian who highly believed that the Black Stars could make us proud but I am really shocked from the onset with the red card attributed to Andrew Ayew. I wish the black Stars could at least reach the quarter final of this 33rd edition of Afcon ”.
”I’m very disappointed. I don’t really know what to say. I’m very disappointed. I’m Cameroonian. Ghana was one of the favorites of this tournament but for now Ghana is going out at the group stage. I’m so disappointed”.
The disappointed journalists spoke their hearts out in Cameroon.
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