Ghana edged closer to the U-20 World Cup after beating Mali 2-0 in their Group A encounter at the African Youth Championship on Wednesday. The Black Satellites won the game thanks to goals from Awako Gladson and Ransford Osei in a keenly contested game in Kigali.

The Ghanaians opened the scoring on 17 minutes when Dominic Adiyiah sent in an inch-perfect cross for Awako to head home. The Malians who were very physical, raised their game in the second-half but they were undone by Osei who chanced on a mistake by goalkeeper Ballo Sheikh Oumar to put the game beyond doubt. The victory leaves the Satellites on four points after two matches following their 1-1 draw with Cameroon in the opening game on Sunday.

Ghana will need one point for their final game against hosts Rwanda to qualify for the U-20 World Cup in Egypt later this year.

Ghana line-up: 1 AGYEI DANIEL, 2 INKOOM SAMUEL, 3 AWAKO GLADSON, 5 ADDO DANIEL, 6 ADDY DAVID, 8 AGYEMANG EMMANUEL BADU, 10 AYEW ANDRE DEDE, 11 ADIYIAH DOMINIC, 15 BOAMPONG PHILLIP, 17 QUANSAH ABEIKU, 18 OSEI RANSFORD.