Black Satellites Got Sweet Revenge Over Gambia To Book Final – U-20 AFCON
The Black Satellites of Ghana did not wait for long to get their revenge over the Young Scorpions of Gambia. The two teams met in the final group game of their group C encounter and it was by chance the Satellites advanced to the qaurter finals as the 3rd best placed team.
The Ghanaians went on to take out Cameroon via a 4-2 penalties victory after an end-to-end 120 minutes encounter. That victory set them up against the Young Scorpions who beat them 2-1 in the group encounter. The Satellites were anxious for the revenge as expressed by Coach Karim Zito in his pre-match conference ahead of the semi-final encounter.
The Satellites had different plans for their counterparts. Coach Karim Zito made one change to his starting XI from their previous encounter as Mohammed Sulemana replaced Anim Cudjoe.
Ghana threatened early in the game as Abdul Fatawu Issahaku saw a call for penalty ignored in the sixth minute. He threatened later with a shot which was expertly saved by Lamin Saidy in post for the Gambia. The breakthrough came in the 33rd minute when Percious Boah curled in a sumptuous free kick to open the scoring that finally proved to be the only separating factor between the two sides.
The Gambia threatened in the second half with Wally Fofana forcing Danlad Ibrahim to a strong save. Danlad had to produce two top saves in under 5 minutes to deny the rejuvenated Gambians a chance of getting back into the game. The Satellites had an opportunity to add to their tally late on in the 82nd minute when Fatawu launched a long range after spotting Lamin off his lines but his effort was well over the bar thus causing the Gambians no further harm.
The win sees Ghana through to the final and sets up a date with the winner of the match between Uganda and Tanzania.
By: Clifford Adumbire | myactiveonline.com
