I have so many mixed feelings about what went down last night in Malabo. I was so excited as I looked forward to 90 minutes of football, mostly because we all know how much this semi final spot meant to the host nation of Equatorial Guinea. They went into the last 4 for the first time in their history and with the home fans in support, who knew what might go down. Let’s be honest, a win against Ghana would have been a thing to behold and against all the odds, but that’s what makes football so exciting. Belief and a passionate crowd behind you can lift your game to unrecognisable heights, and the dream was alive for most of the first half, wasn’t it? And then things went south for the team of Equatorial Guinea, as well as their fans’ reputation and you could see shame in the faces and the behaviour of the home team’s players. But more on that in a moment.
The first half began at a quick pace and it seemed like 1 goal would all we’d see, if we were lucky, because neither team was giving an inch with great runs up the flanks and down the middle, coming from both teams. Javier Balboa looked like he may repeat his quarter final heroics but it was not to be. It was towards the end of the first half that Ghana had the opportunity to stamp their authority on the game, with a penalty on the 41 minute mark, as goalkeeper Felipe Ovono was judged to have brought Kwesi Appiah down in the area. Jordan Ayew made no mistake with his shot from the spot and at that point the game took a turn. The hosts had their backs against the wall and they showed it in their body language and every tackle by the opposition seemed it could lead to a brawl and the referee and the linesmen had their work cut out keeping the on-field peace. From then on Ghana gained momentum, and the second half seemed to only have 1 team trying to score. The Celtic midfielder, Mubarak Wakaso’s strike after a fantastic piece of counter attacking, just after the half time break, not only put the game out of reach for Equatorial Guinea, it was also the 1500th goal in AFCON history.
After many opportunities to seal the game came the way of particularly Andrew Ayew and Appiah, they would get their 3rd in the 75th minute through that very Andrew Ayew, and that seemed to be the end of it. To be honest, I started to doze off, but was quickly back in it when I noticed almost the entire contingent of Ghanaian fans gathered behind the goal line. They were escaping missiles being thrown by the home fans and it took half an hour for peace to be restored so that the final 8 minutes of the game could be played. That, plus an extra 3 minutes of stoppage time, was all that remained and the final whistle sounded, leaving us with a bit of a sour taste in our mouths, and rather looking forward to Sunday’s final between Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire in Bata, which will be a repeat of the 1992 final which the Ivory Coast won on Penalties.
Why not relive the game with highlights, thanks to the guys at Supersport.com
Join us next week for a recap and fresh highlights from the AFCON 2015 final.