A solitary penalty strike from Mubarak Wakaso was enough to hand Ghana’s Black Star its first win in the 2013 African Cup of Nations on Thursday.
The team defeated Mali 1-0 in a Group B match at the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, MTNFootball.com reports.
The first 45 minutes saw Ghana playing the better quality football, but for all their promise and swift passing they actually struggled to create many decent opportunities on goal from open play.
One of the biggest talking points of the half happened as early as the seventh minute when many would have argued that the Black Stars goalkeeper, Fatau Dauda, should have been show a straight red card.
Miss communication between defender John Boye and Dauda allowed Mali’s Seydou Keita to pressure the goalkeeper into handling the ball outside the 18-yard box.
Being the last man, between Keita and the goal, Dauda should have been shown red, but instead the referee opted to show some kindness and branded the yellow card.
From the resulting free-kick Keita came within inches of giving Mali the lead when his 20-yard effort whispered past the left-hand post.
After that, however, it was all Ghana but they struggled to break down the Eagles defence and had to opt to shoot from long range as a result.
Harrison Afful came closest to scoring from distance for the Black Stars in the 24th minute when his 30-yard thunderbolt sailed narrowly over the crossbar.
In the 32nd minute Ghana came close again to breaking the deadlock, this time from a left-side set-piece. The ball was whipped into the box and Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu rose above the Mali defence to head the ball on goal, but he saw his 14-yard effort bounce off the right hand post.
Finally, in the 36th minute the Back Stars were able to fashion an opening on goal in general play as Asamoah Gyan slipped Agyemang-Badu through on goal, but he was recklessly pulled down inside the box by Mali’s Adama Tamboura and the referee did not hesitate to point to the spot.
Mubarak Wakaso stepped up and superbly dispatched the penalty into the top right-hand corner of the net to give Ghana the lead, 1-0, a lead they kept going into the half time break.
The second 45 minutes saw the play move from end to end as Ghana tried to put the result beyond doubt while Mali tried desperately to find the equaliser.
But the amount of pressing by both sides resulted in the game being a little broken and sloppy. Consequently, players were getting frustrated and a host of yellow cards (five to be precise in the second half – two for Ghana and three for Mali) were shown for careless tackles.
