Ghana Survives a Second Half Egyptian Scare

Results & table


The National Under 20 team, the Black Satellites survived a second half Egyptian scare to earn a point in a one all drawn game at the on going 13 African Youth Cup competition on Wednesday at the Stade Ominisport stadium.

Leading by a 14 minute wonderful overhead kick by Derek Boateng into the break, Ghana appeared tired in the second half and allowed the Egyptians to run freely for most of the second half which fetched them the equaliser in the 58th minute.

The draw puts Ghana in a dangerous third position with the same points as the Egyptians.

This means Ghana would then have to beat Cote d'Ivoire by a two goal margin in their last group match on Saturday while the Egyptians next play Morocco.

The Satellites started well and played a very delightful game especially in the mid-field where Kwadwo Opoku and Yussif Chipsah co-ordinated well with the strikers of Derek Boateng and Papa Arko in attack.

It came as no surprise when they went ahead early. After the lead the Satellites continued to probe for more goals as the Egyptians seemed unable to deal with the dribbling skills of Boateng who nearly scored a second goal from a similar situation in the 20th minute.

The Egyptians gradually lifted up their game and won two free kicks in dangerous position just outside the Ghanaian penalty box in the 22nd and 24th minutes which they wasted.

After the break the game changed totally in favour of the Egyptians as they pushed the Ghanaians into their own half of the park creating chances after chances.

Rasak Ibrahim who had come in for Opoku just after the break could not hold the middle as Hasan Mansour and Hosni Abdel pulled all the strings in attack.

In one of their moves in the 58th minute Hosni was allowed to run for over 20 metres from the left to the right wing before volleying the ball over the head of advancing Alex Agypong in post for the equaliser.

After the equaliser the Ghanaians lived dangerously as the Egyptians pushed more men forward for the winner but the Ghanaian defence built around skipper of the day Patrick Villar and William Thompson remained resolute to earn Ghana a point.

Line Up: Alex Agypong, Saliu Muntari, William Thompson, Kwadjwo Poku/ Ibrahim Rasak, Papa Arko, Derek Boateng, Sulley Muntari/Jonathan Quartey, Mohammed Habib/ Daniel Coleman, Patrick Villars and Yusif Chibsah.