Full-times: Egypt 1-0 Ghana; Uganda 1-1 Mali
Egypt win the group and will meet Morocco in the quarter-final. Ghana will face DR Congo and, perhaps, Senegal if they reach the semis: but their chances of getting that far will depend heavily on the fitness of Asamoah Gyan, who limped of here with groin trouble. Ghana have a great attitude and some strong and technically gifted players, but without Gyan they look very blunt. Egypt, meanwhile, have finished top despite scoring only two goals: they’re solid and look well equipped to annoy plenty of other opponents.
90 min: There will be at least three more minutes. But they could play for another six months and Ghana still wouldn’t score.
89 min: Terrific strike by Jordan Ayew from the edge of the box. But it is a touch too close to El-Hadary, who gets both hands to it and bats it away.
86 min: Gabr jumps above Jordan Ayew and wins the ball fair and square. Freekick. Although he has penalised Ghanaians mostly. It is now apparently that this ref is intent on abolishing heading in football. He really shouldn’t be giving such ideas to Marco Van Basten ...
83 min: Corner to Ghana. Atsu delivers. It’s headed away at the near post. For the 867th time. Terrible setpiece deliveries can’t be blamed on bobbles or the ref.
82 min: Egypt have long since shed their attacking ambition and are content to merely frustrate Ghana, a task with which the pitch and the referee are helping.
80 min: Boye booked for winning the ball in the air. He’s as outraged as he is incredulous. Almost every time a Ghanaian jumps for the ball he’s being penalised. It’s a bizarre but definite pattern.
79 min: Grant makes his last chance: Mubarak on, Badu off.
76 min: Tekpetey booked for making no effort whatsoever to stop running towards Elneny after the midfielder passed the ball. He careered lazily into the Arsenal man and then put on an innocent expression that fooled no one.
74 min: Mensah penalised for a supposed push on Elomohady as the pair jumped for the ball. Didn’t look like anything resembling a foul to me, so presumably the ref just mistook Mensah for Andre Ayew.
GOAL! Uganda 1-1 Mali (Bissouma 72)
Well Uganda’s hopes of a first win this tournament for a generation did not last long. Bissouma launches a rocket of a freekick into the top corner from 30 yards!
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72 min: Ghana substitution: Tetteh off, 19-year-old Tekpetey on for his debut.
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GOAL! Uganda 1-0 Mali (Miya 70)
Miya Faruk blasts one into the top corner from 20 yards!
71 min: Egypt susbstitution: Soliman on, Fahmi off.
69 min: Badu tries to use the pitch randomiser to his advantage, banging in a long shot that bounces just in front of the keeper. But El-Hadary watched the ball well and pushed it aside with minimal panic.
67 min: Ghana open up Egypt at last! A lovely incisive ball from deep by Afful finds Atsu, who controls it with one touch and then tries to nudge it past the out-rushing keeper. But El-Hadary makes the save .... and, oh, it wouldn’t have counted anyway, because Atsu was a yard offside.
63 min: Elneny tries a pot shot from 30 yards. He takes a chunk of turf out of the pitch in the process, and the ball takes a nick off a defender and flies way wide.
60 min: A Ghana corner is headed clear at the near post. Of course.
57 min: The referee appears to have decided that Andre Ayew is some kind of aerial menace: every time he jumps for the ball he is penalised and it is not at all clear why. It’s clearly annoying the player. Indeed, with Egypt defending so comfortably, the most intriguing part of this game is how long Ghana can stave off a full-blown tantrum in the face of contrary refereeing and a ludicrous pitch.
56 min: A beautiful run by Atsu is sullied by a ridiculous bobble that robs him of the ball just as he prepared to shoot after dribbling between two opponents. This pitch is almost booby-trapped.
53 min: Andre Ayew jumps up and down and stamps his feet in fury after being penalised for a supposed foul.
51 min: Gabr nuts a cross away after Ghana resort to a hopeful high ball, their intricate buildups getting them nowhere.
48 min: Freekick to Ghana midway inside the Egyptian half. Setpieces might be their best hope of breaking through this Egyptian defence. They’ve pretty much been running into a brick wall otherwise. The feekick is floated into the area and Boye wins it but he was under too much pressure to be able to guide his header on target.
46 min: We have resumption. The onus is on Ghana to find a way through this sturdy and determined Egyptian defence - but without Gyan that looks unlikely. An equaliser could enable them to top the group, however, while two goals could send Egypt out and Mali through as runners-up, provided Mali manage to edge past Uganda.
In the group’s other match, Mali and Uganda have splish-splashed their way to a 0-0 score at half-time on a pitch that looks like a paddy field.
Half-time: Egypt 1-0 Ghana
Ghana are a goal down and have lost their most dangerous forward, Gyan, to an injury that may rule him out for the remainder of the tournament. No wonder Avram Grant looks doleful. Eh?
44 min: Staunch defending by Elmohamady to muscle his way between Jordan Ayew and the ball just as the forward looked like skipping merrily into the Egyptian box.
42 min: Amartey goes close with a header at the far post! He rose brilliantly to meet an incoming freekick but headed a yard wide.
Ghana substitution: Gyan, having tried to continue, trudges off, shaking his head ominously. Ghana fans will eagerly await the diagnosis. In the meantime, Jordan Ayew replaces Ayew.
38 min: What a blunder by Razak! The goalkeeper tried to punt the bal clear but instead passed it low to Mohsen. Luckily for the goalkeeper, Mohsen’s ensuing lob drifts over the bar.
36 min: Things may just have taken a serious downturn for Ghana: Gyan has limped off the pitch, seemingly after hurting his groin muscle. If much damage is done that could put paid to the Black Stars’ hopes of winning this tournament, as they are heavily reliant on their veteran striker for goals. Playing him tonight may have been an unwise gamble, after all.
34 min: Afful pumps a long diagonal freekick into the box. El-Hadary ventures into the throng in front of him because he knows he has one crucial advantage over all the others: he can use his hands. He swats the ball away with one hand as Boye tries to meet it with his head.
32 min: Egypt threaten for the first time in a while, Saied and Salah combining deftly before releasing Elmohamady down the right. The fullback’s cross on the run goes way beyond the forward in the box.
29 min: Now Ghana have a corner on the other side, after Tetteh’s cross is deflected behind by Elmohamady. The delivery is better and Gyan loses his marker as he goes to meet it. That bit was good but, alas, the striker’s connection with the cross was not so hot and his header sailed over the bar.
28 min: Gyan pesters Hagazi into conceding a corner. But Atsu’s delivery is rubbish again.
27 min: Afful lofts a cross from the left way beyond the far post. Atsu does well to outjump Fathi but is unable to ster his header on target.
25 min: The match has settled into a similar pattern to the teams’ meeting last November, when Egypt defended quite deep and struck on the counter. Ghana could not find enough creativity to penetrate them on that occasion and they have not yet looked like doing so here, either.
22 min: A terrible pass by Fathi goes straight to Ayew, who was nowhere near any Egyptian. The West Ham player tries to get a counter-attack going but Egypt file back quickly to shut off all avenues.
20 min: Tetteh bangs a pass in towards Gyan at the edge of the area. The striker does superbly to control it with his chest and tee himself up for a shot, but Hegazy reacts quickly foil that plan, stretching out a leg and poking the ball off Gyan’s foot.
17 min: Corner to Ghana. Atsu and Tetteh try a short routine but make a mess of it, allowing Egypt to clear.
14 min: Egypt have got their danders up now. There’s extra pizzazz to their passing, and, despite the treacherous pitch, Saied is starting to conduct matters from in the hole behind the striker.
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11 min: So, as things stand, Egypt will play their North African brethren from Morocco, while Ghana will face DR Congo. And Mali will head home.
GOAL! Egypt 1-0 Ghana (Salah 10)
Marvellous freekick by Salah! From about 22 yards and a little to the right of the D he spanked it past the wall and into the top corner, sweet as you like! Razak didn’t even move, except to turn his head sideways when he heard the ball whoosh past him.
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9 min: Mensah shillly-shallies outside his own area and is robbed by Salah. The ball runs to Saeid, who sidesteps Boye neatly before being brought down untidily by the latter. Freekick in a dangerous area.
7 min: Salah takes a corner short and then receives the return at a better angle for a cross. But he overhits that cross, making the whole exercise pointless.
5 min: Badu tries a crack from 25 yards but fails to get under his half-volley, launching it into the empty stand behind the goal. But we can perhaps blame that on the pitch, whose bobbliness is creating a certain Crazy Golf vibe despite the players’ good technique and intentions.
3 min: After a slow, deliberate build-up by Egypt, Elneny decides to inject some directness by bogging a shot at goal from 25 yards. He strikes it cleanly but it whizzes a couple of yards over the bar.
1 min: Off we pop, at a leisurely pace to begin with. The stadium looks roughly 17% full.
Gyan and El-Hadary meet in the centre circle for the coin toss and, perhaps, to discuss their figures: Gyan goes into this game with 49 international goals and seeking to reach the half-century and close the gap on the man everyone’s chasing, Robbie Keane. El-Hadary’s claim to fame, meanwhile, is that at 44 he is the oldest player ever to feature in this tournament and may even be seasoned enough to remember the last time Ghana won it.
The teams are preparing to walk out on to the pitch in Port Gentil; meanwhile in Oyem, where Mali face Uganda, the players might be well advised to don flippers and snorkels, as the pitch looks heavily water-logged.
And here are the starting lineup for the group’s avian encounter, Cranes v Eagles:
Uganda: Odongkara; Iguma, Juuko, Wasswa, Walusimbi; Aucho, Kizito; Oloya, Kizito, Ochaya; Miya
Mali: Sissoko; Coulibaly, Wagué, N’Diaye, Traoré; N’Diaye, Sylla, Bissouma; Coulibaly, Marega, Doumbia
Teams:
Egypt: Essam El-Hadary, Ahmed Fathi, Ahmed Hegazy, Ali Gabr, Ahmed Elmohamady, Tarek Hamed, Mohamed Elneny, Mohamed Salah, Abdallah El-Said, Mahmoud ‘Trezeguet’, Marwan Mohsen
Ghana: Brimah Razak, Andy Yiadom, Samuel Afful, Jona Mensah, John Boye, Daniel Amartey, Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu, Andrew Ayew, Christian Atsu, Samuel Tetteh, Asamoah Gyan
Preamble
Hello. Welcome to what could be an odd affair. Odd because, with Ghana currently top of Group B and already assured of a place in the quarterfinals and Egypt needing only a draw to qualify as runners-up, winning may not be the best outcome for either side. That is because the group runners-up will get to play their quarter-final in Oyem, while the winners must remain in Port Gentil, where the atrocious pitch has been blamed for scruffy performances by many teams and injuries to several players. So never mind the prestige of topping the group or the identity of the opponents in the next round (Morocco for the group winners, DR Congo for the runners-up), both teams may be thinking more about the venue.
Maybe, then, we’ll be treated to drama of a similar stripe to the magnificent Barbados-Granada spree of 1994 (for more on that, see this). Then again, maybe not. Avram Grant’s team selection does not suggest he’s taking this lightly, as he’s decided against giving Asamoah Gyan or Andre Ayew a day off (full teams news to follow). And Hector Cuper certainly can’t take the liberty of resting anyone, as a loss today would leave Egypt vulnerable to being leapfrogged by Mali, who will be deadset on denying Uganda a consolation win in today’s other match. So the signs are that Grant is not going to attempt to be crafty by plotting the ideal route forward and will instead just try to gather momentum by settling an old score: Ghana have not been particularly fluent despite winning both their matches so far and, what is more, Egypt beat them 2-0 in a World Cup qualifier in November, so avenging that would be both sweet and encouraging. In short, larks ahoy!
#Ghana fans are poised to support the #BlackStars for tonight's #afcon2017 match against #Egypt. #GoGhana #can2017 @ASAMOAH_GYAN3 @AyewAndre pic.twitter.com/Rcse65Kbvb
— Ghana FA (@ghanafaofficial) January 25, 2017
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