Ronaldo vs Black Stars players
Africa at last scored in the current World cup through two beautiful goals from the Black Stars of Ghana but the efforts were not enough as Ghana fell 2-3 to The Navigators of Portugal whose name worked for them in the first round of Group H in Qatar.
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Ghana played defensive football from the tactical strategy of 5-3-2 against 4-1-2-1-2 of Portugal which gave Ronaldo heartache to penetrate being the man to mark out. A strongly protested penalty was awarded Portugal as Ronaldo looked as if he dived but all protests were refused as American Ref Ismail Elfath did not even bother to consult the VAR. Ronaldo scored the penalty in the 65th minute.
The Stadium 974 in Doha was momentarily silent with the Vuvuzela of the Ghanaians lowered, the energetic and vociferous supporters became quiet.
AS Portuguese defenders missed the ball in front of goal, Ghanaian Captain and perhaps the lucky African to play most matches in the world cup, Andre Ayew pounced on a lose ball to score the equalizer for Ghana and the first goal for Africa in the 73rd minute. His father, Abedi Pele Ayew a great African Player never played the world cup but he and his brother, Jordan did with him scoring – what a glory!
Portugal started bombarding the Ghanaian vital area led by Bruno Fernades in a manner replicable of Russia on Ukraine. The result of that was an assist to Joao Felix by Fernandes for Portugal’s second goal in the 78th minute. Two minutes later, same Fernandes again gave another assist to Rafael Leao in 80th minute for Portugal’s third goal.
Both second and third goals were slips from Jordan Ayew in the midfield after his brother Andre and another player were substituted, a decision that did not work out for Ghana.
Then from the blues, Osman Bukari scored a powerful header in the 89th minute from a string of errors of the Portuguese defence. At Portugal 3 Ghana 2 the tension was palpable with Ronaldo shaking his head from the bench and turning assistant coach on the sidelines. Players became very rough that both Danila Pereira of Portugal and Inaki Williams of Ghana were instantly given the yellow in 90+1 minute.
Portugal had on 26th June 2014 beaten Ghana in a world cup group match with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring the winner. Portugal was winless in their last three opening games of the world cup with two draws and a loss but now added a win. It may be because the team tried an African team in last pre-world cup game beating the Super Eagles of Nigeria 4-1.
Ranked 8th in the world had her best, a Bronze in 1966, was 4th in Germany 2006 and made the round of 16 at South African 2010 and in 2018.
Ghana ranked 61st was making a 4th appearance. Best performance was quarter final in 2010. Ghana was sent out at round of 16 in 2006 and stopped in the group stage at Brazil 2014.
On Monday 28th South Korea will tackle Ghana at 2pm and Portugal will face Uruguay at 8pm in the second round of Group H.
Eniola Olatunji reporting.
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