Dazzling Stars shoot down Hawks

London, Aug 16, GNA -- Black Stars of Ghana shone and glittered with two un-replied second half goals against Togo in an international friendly match played at Griffin Park, Brentford on Tuesday night. The win, a sweet revenge for the Stars who lost 0-1 to the Togolese in their last encounter in Tunisia earlier in the year was more pleasurable because of claims by the Togolese that the Stars could not beat them.

The encounter attracted quiet a sizable number made up mostly of Ghanaians and representatives of coaches Arsene Wenger of Arsenal, who has been monitoring Kotoko's Shila Illiasu and another from Harry Rednapp of Portmounth, whose seven million dollar bid for Sulley Muntari was turned down by his club, Udinese.

The Ghanaians dominated the goalless first half through fluid possessive and trickery passing by the midfield trio of Stephen Appiah, Laryea Kinston and Michael Essien and created many decent chances which they failed to convert.

That notwithstanding, the Stars dominance did not mean they totally overawed their opponents, who in their own way played to a well rehearsed game plan of counter attacking, which enabled them to create some panic moments in the Stars defence.

Ghana had an early scare when Essien, whose inclusion in the team was believed to be on the insistence of his Chelsea team coach, Jose Mourihno, who wanted all his returning World Cup players to gain the needed match fitness before the start of the English Premiership this weekend, was hit in the face but the steeled midfielder recovered quickly to continue play.

The first sniff at goal for Ghana came in the sixth minute when skipper Stephen Appiah broke in the penalty box only to be robbed of the ball by the combined effort of goalkeeper Abdul Omourou and tireless Togolese skipper Yoavi Abalo.

Then at the other side, a miscalculated back pass from Shilla Illiasu to his goalkeeper, Richard Kinston created a panic situation but Issah Ahmed was alive to his responsibility to save the situation for Ghana.

John Paintsil, who was very busy on the right showed why West Ham paid a million dollars for his signature when he ghosted past his marker on 22 minutes to set Razak Pimpong but the striker's shot went just wide.

As the second half began, the Stars became more purposeful and bombarded the Togolese goal area persistently.

Led by their able skipper Steven Appiah, Ghana came close moments after the start of the second half when the skipper flashed his shot just wide off the target.

Essien moved from the midfield to the right flank in a bid to get more space to roam and in the 57th minute, he set up Sully Muntari who rattled the Togolese cross bar.

Two minutes later, the opener came after skipper Appiah did the spade work by flicking a loose ball in the box over Togolese goalkeeper to Razak Pimpong to tap into the empty net.

The Togolese grew in confidence as the match wore on and they came close to equalising on a number of occasions but it was the Ghanaians who had the last laugh when right at the final whistle, a cross from Appiah was tapped into the net by substitute striker Alex Techie Menson

GHANA: Richard Kingston, John Painstil/Dan Quaye, Issah Ahmed, Habib Mohammed, Shila Illiasu, Laryea Kingston/Aminu Dramani, Razak Bimpong/Derek Boateng, Michael Essien, Stephen Appiah, Sulley Ali Muntari, and Mathew Amoah/Techie Menson.

TOGO: Abdul Nassitou Omourou, Yaovi Abalo, Assimou Toure, Richard Forson, Sahoun Zakari, Kwami Enimful/Dedier Paas, Abdul Mamah/Senam Langueh, Thomas Dossevi, Alexis Romoa, Guyazou Kassim, Komla Amewou and Robert Malm