Ghana’s quest to join their fellow Africans Senegal and Morocco in the round of 16 of the Qatar 2022 World Cup fell through today as they lost 2-0 to Uruguay, who also got knocked out.
The Black Stars were baying for revenge over a 2010 World Cup incident in which Luis Suarez’s handball prevented them from becoming the first African team to reach the semi-finals.
But when they were prevented with the perfect chance to take the lead from the penalty spot, they blew it as Andre Ayew’s kick was saved in the 21st minute.
With that miss, Ghana became the only team to have missed two penalties against the same opponent in the World Cup excluding penalty shootouts since 1966.
Uruguay then scored twice before half-time, with Suarez incidentally involved in both goals.
Giorgian de Arrascaeta netted both goals, tapping home the first one in the 26th minute after Suarez’s shot was spilled. The two then combined again for the second goal six minutes later.
There were no more goals in an entertaining second half in which Ghana did most of the attacking until late on when Uruguay realised they would need another goal.
Uruguay were cruising into the round of 16 with the Portugal versus Korea game reaching the 90th minute. As it stood at that point Uruguay were two points ahead of the Asian team.
Drama then ensued as Korea struck in stoppage time to make it 2-1 against Portugal and move ahead of Uruguay on goals scored as both were tied on four points and the same goal difference.
The Korea versus Portugal clash ended 2-1 with some minutes still left in the Ghana versus Uruguay battle, and it made for a frenetic finale of end-to-end football.
Tried as they did, both Ghana and Uruguay could not score again, and Korea finished second on four points, two behind Portugal.
Uruguay ended up in third place with four points and Ghana came last with three points.
