Dramatic night at AFCON 2023 leaves Ghana on the bus home
The Black Stars of Ghana are on the bus home after what is arguably the most dramatic seven minutes of tournament football at AFCON 2023. Africa’s premier football festival has been dishing out surprise after surprise since it kicked off on the 13th of February.
Group B was always going to be interesting, but many pundits had seven-time winners Egypt and four-time victors Ghana as the obvious choices to automatically qualify for the knockout stage. The football world watched in awe as Mozambique held both Ghana and Egypt to a draw while Cape Verde topped the group!
With less than seven minutes to go in both matches, Ghana were cruising against Mozambique while Egypt was standing at the tournament exit door. Even when Mexer scored a penalty for the Mambas, it still looked like the Black Stars were going through. Then Trezeguet pulled out an equaliser for Egypt. Fair enough, the Pharaohs were in the best third-placed battle and Ghana was still going through. What happened in the next couple of minutes had journalists deleting headlines and entire stories while fans cried for joy and dispair.
Egypt scored what looked like the winner and all of Pharaoh’s men and women rejoiced. Richard Ofori touched a harmless ball for a corner which was turned in by Mozambique’s Mandava and the Black Stars lights were dimmed and switched off in agony. Ghanaian media made a beeline for the team bus to vent their anger and had to be restricted by armed security! Mohamed Kudus could not even speak as he accepted the Man of the Match award. Cape Verde, meanwhile, found an equaliser that had Egyptians falling off their seats and crying until news of Ghana’s demise filtered through.
VAR had to be involved, of course. When Mostafa Mohamed dinked the ball into the net to make 2-1, there was gnashing of teeth and biting of nails as the referee jogged to the small monitor to check for handball by the Egypt striker. The entire Egypt bench surrounded the poor fourth official in protest before almost drowning him with hugs when the goal was confirmed.
It was an unforgettable night of football. Egypt became the first nation to qualify for the knockout stage with three identical 2-2 draws. Ghana exited AFCON at the group stage for the second consecutive time. While Ghanaians cried, hosts Cote D’ivoire saw light at the end of the tunnel. The Ivorians lead the best third-placed team race with four groups still to play. Those Ivorian fans who bolted out of the stadium before the game ended as Equatorial Guinea pummelled their team might still sing for Ivory Coast at one more AFCON 2023 match.
