The Black Meteors of Ghana lost out on a shot to win the U-23 AFCON cup, after losing to Cote d’-Ivoire. The thrilling game ended 2-2 after extra time of play, but the Black meteors could not hold up during the penalty shoot out.
The match started very slowly, with the Black Meteors under pressure from the Ivorians, who had much better possession of the ball. The Ivorians took the lead in the 13th minute with a goal from Youssouf Dao.
The scoreline remained the same throughout the first half and even substitution of Robin Polley for Kwabena Owusu in the 26th minute of the game did not change this.
In the second half, however, things started to look bright for the Meteors. Yaw Yeboah brought in a goal with a cut back from Samuel Obeng. But the Ivorians were relentless and took the lead again with Dao scoring a second goal.
He powered a header past Kwame Baah in the 85th minute to claim the lead. Ghana quickly fought back through Evans Mensah who fired a close-range ball after Kwabena Owusu passed him the ball.
With this, the game ended in a 2-2 draw after the remaining minutes of play and the extra time given by the referee.
In the penalty shootout, Ghana managed to net 2 of the 5 opportunities. Emmanuel Lomotey and Samuel Obeng scored for Ghana scored whilst Emmanuel Cudjoe, Evans Mensah and Kwabena Owusu missed their chances.
The Ivorians, on the other hand, utilized 3 of their chances with Ismael Diallo scored, Hamed Traore, Koffi Kouao perfectly scoring their penalties, but Aboubakar Keita missed his kick.
At the end of the game, the Ivorians had booked their ticket to the finals of the U-23 AFCON competition on Friday and also booked the first African ticket to the Olympic football tournament.
Ghana will have to play the loser of the second semi-final game between Egypt and South Africa, in which the winner books the final ticket to the Olympic tournament in Japan.
