Archived News - 6th Feb 2007
African Cup of Nations News
Features
Archived News
- Latest News
- 4th Feb 2008
- 30th Jan 2008
- 26th Jan 2008
- 25th Jan 2008
- 23rd Jan 2008
- 19th Jan 2008
- 8th Jan 2008
- 29th Nov 2007
- 23rd Nov 2007
- 22nd Nov 2007
- 22nd Aug 2007
- 15th Apr 2007
- 26th Mar 2007
- 19th Mar 2007
- 12th Mar 2007
- 5th Mar 2007
- 6th Feb 2007
- 29th Jan 2007
- 15th Jan 2007
- 8th Jan 2007
- 2nd Jan 2007
- 19th Dec 2006
- 12th Dec 2006
- 7th Dec 2006
- 27th Nov 2006
- 20th Nov 2006
- 19th Nov 2006
- 7th Nov 2006
- 10th Oct 2006
Ghana Nail Nigeria To Grab Bragging Rights
Ghana |
4 |
|
Nigeria |
1 |
Kingston (50) |
|
Taiwo, pen (75) |
||
Barney Cullum reports from Griffin Park, London
Ghana's Black Stars furthered the claims of their supporters - if not themselves - to be recognised as the finest team in Africa by comprehensively defeating Nigeria 4-1 in London Tuesday night (Feb 6). The Super Eagles failed miserably to live up to their billing as Fifa's highest ranked African team by falling to the biggest defeat at the hands of their West African rivals since 1960, the year of Nigerian independence.
Ghana, meanwhile, looked just as impressive in their first outing in 2007 as they did on becoming the only African side to reach the last 16 of the World Cup in 2006. Second half goals from Laryea Kingston, Sulley Muntari, Junior Agogo and Joetex Frimpong extended Claude LeRoy's unbeaten run as manager to five matches since he took the reigns last autumn.
Taye-Taiwo, the Monaco full-back, scored Nigeria's only goal with a penalty whilst key strikers Nwankwo Kanu, Obafemi Martins and Aiyegbeni Yakubu (an 80th minute substitute) were all rested. The story of the night could perhaps have been different if Stephen Makinwa had opted for placement rather than power when he struck a shot straight at Ghana stopper Richard Kingston with a great early chance for Nigeria in the fifth minute.
The Lazio striker was not alone in missing gilt-edged chances in a first-half that amazingly finished goalless considering the attacking intent on display from two clearly highly motivated rival sets of players. John Mikel Obi missed Nigeria's best chance of the night by heading over when it was easier to score from a 40-yard cross from John Utaka that was worthy of David Beckham in his pomp. Asamoah Gyan, for his part, missed Ghana’s two best chances of the opening period with wild efforts from inside the box that didn't do justice to his intelligently timed runs.
Despite these bad misses, both Mikel and Gyan caught the eye for the good work they did throughout the match, as did new Heart of Midlothian signing Laryea Kingston, who had easily his best game for Ghana in recent memory. The 26-year-old played a fabulous 'look-away' reverse pass to set his skipper Stephen Appiah through on goal after 25 minutes and all night long his distribution was accurate and incisive.
Kingston and Junior Agogo have both been made to feel wanted by LeRoy in a way that the one-time fringe players never used to know. With their confidence seemingly sky high it was no surprise when both found the net early in the second half. Their respective goals were very different but both had quality. Kingston drove a low shot with the outside of his right boot from twenty yards to break the deadlock whilst Nottingham Forest striker Agogo placed his goal through a crowd inside a busy penalty area.
Sandwiched in between those two efforts was a trademark left-foot fire-cracker from Udinese's want-away winger Sulley Muntari that arrowed across goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama into the top corner and was the goal of the night. Mikel continued to show his quality in midfield for Nigeria, as did winger Peter Odemwingie, but with Rennes forward John Utaka drifting out of the game and Julius Agahowa looking rusty, Nigeria lacked Ghana's ruthlessness in front of goal.
Joetex Frimpong completed the rout for Ghana late on after Taiwo's penalty and the game ended with the Ghanaian majority in the sold-out stadium euphorically chanting 'we want five'. Nigerian ex-pats did their best to take their hiding magnanimously. Ghana won't let Nigeria forget about this for a while, and the next Fifa rankings update should make very interesting reading.
Ghana: Kingson, Sarpei, Mohammed, Alhassan, Mensah, Essien, Kingston, Appiah, Gyan, Agogo, Muntari
Nigeria: Enyeama, Abbey, Taiwo, Olofinjana, Utaka, Obode, Mikel, Ojemwingie, Makinwa, Yobo, Nwaneri
Please forward all press releases and feature ideas to Barney Cullum on barney@newafricansoccer.co.uk