Irresistible Congo arrest the hopes of Ghanaians

By El-Amisty Nobo| Follow Amisty on twitter @ElAmistyNobo

Ghana’s dream of making it to a fourth straight appearance at the FIFA World Cup looks all but pale after been held to a 1-1 drawn game by Congo at the Baba Yara Sports Stadium in Kumasi on Friday, September 01.

It took just eighteen minutes into the first half for the Diables Rouges – Congo to partially break the heart of many a Ghanaian fan who still believed that the Black Stars were capable of booking a qualification ticket to the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup.

Thievy Bifouma capitalized on Ghana’s lacklustre defending to shoot the visitors in front in the 18th minute as the Baba Yara Stadium, which has witnessed the Black Stars recording resounding victories in recent past go dead silent in a second.

Ironically, the Congolese who had no point going into the game were rather controlling the game whilst the Black Stars kept chasing shadows. The Black Stars created only one clear goal scoring opportunity in the first half, but Thomas Partey’s effort missed the target by a whisker.

Coach Kwesi Appiah played his cards at half time as he brought on Harrison Afful for Joseph Larweh who looked like a complete Bull in a Chinese shop having been played out of position.

But the sub-plot of Afful’s introduction was that whereas Ghana tried to keep possession, Congo on the other hand were breaking the Black Stars defence with ease creating enough goal scoring chances.

Asamoah Gyan and Andre Ayew also made way for Thomas Agyapong and Kwadwo Poku in the 63rd and the 68th minute respectively, but the story continued unabated until Thomas Partey pulled parity for the Black Stars in the 85th minute after Christian Atsu’s blind pass found him in the eighteen yard box to shoot the ball beyond the reach of goalkeeper Mosiah Mouko.

In the end, the positions in the Group E remained constant except that Congo were rewarded its first point of the campaign.

Group E

Uganda – 7

Egypt – 6

Ghana – 2

Congo – 1

Starting line-ups:

GHANA

Richard Ofori

Joseph Larweh Attamah

Jeffrey Schlupp

Daniel Amartey

Jonathan Mensah

Thomas Partey

Christian Atsu

Ebenezer Ofori

Asamoah Gyan

Jordan Ayew

Andre Ayew

Coach – Kwesi Appiah

CONGO

Mouko Barel Mosiah

Itoua Beranges

Baudry Marvin

Fernando Mayembo

Tobias Badila

Dore Ferebory

Nguessi Ondama

Avounou Durel

Bifouma Thievy

Cesar Gandze

Bahamboula Dylan

Coach – Sebastien Migne

Officials

Referee – Essrayri Youssef

Assistant 1 – Jridi Faouzi

Assistant 2 – Saad Marwene

Fourth Official – Jaouadi Nasrallah

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