{"id":359837,"date":"2017-10-07T15:08:45","date_gmt":"2017-10-07T15:08:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=359837"},"modified":"2017-10-07T15:08:45","modified_gmt":"2017-10-07T15:08:45","slug":"ghanas-world-cup-hopes-all-but-over-after-draw-in-uganda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=359837","title":{"rendered":"Ghana&#8217;s World Cup hopes all but over after draw in Uganda"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ghana&#8217;s hopes of qualifying for the 2018\u00a0World Cup in Russia are all but over after they were held to a 0-0 draw by Uganda in Kampala in a game marred by poor refereeing decisions.<\/p>\n<p>Saturday&#8217;s clash was billed as a make-or-break for the World Cup hopes for both sides, with Uganda two points behind Egypt and Ghana a further two back.<\/p>\n<p>However, a number of missed chances from both sides and poor officiating meant neither side could find a breakthrough.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/8.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-359854\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/8-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"8\" width=\"620\" height=\"414\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Ghana had two legitimate goals disallowed and had a strong penalty appeal waved away by the referee<\/p>\n<p>The Pharaohs\u00a0can now clinch a spot at next year&#8217;s World Cup with a win over Congo on Sunday, opening up an\u00a0unassailable four-point lead at the top of the group.<\/p>\n<p>With Ghana needing to win to stand any chance of qualifying for the 2018 World Cup in Russia, and with several key players missing, Kwesi Appiah\u00a0went with a new look squad for today\u2019s game.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/4.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-359849\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/4-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"4\" width=\"620\" height=\"414\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Appiah\u00a0handed an international debut\u00a0to Malmo star Kingsley Sarfo while\u00a0Richmond Boakye-Yiadom who\u2019s been in stunning form for\u00a0SuperLiga team Red Star Belgrade, started up front with captain Asamoah Gyan out with an injury.<\/p>\n<p>Christian Atsu, Harrison Afful and Jonathan Mensah also missed the trip while Jordan and Andre Ayew were dropped from the squad.<\/p>\n<p>Uganda who had beaten the Egyptians in Kampala before losing in Alexandria during the previous international break, started the game brightly.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/7.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-359853\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/7-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"7\" width=\"620\" height=\"414\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Okwi was a livewire down the right for the Cranes\u00a0asking a number of questions\u00a0of the Ghanaian defence.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the pressure from the Ugandans, it was Ghana who almost took the lead through Thomas Partey, who had scored four times in his last two games for Ghana.<\/p>\n<p>Richard Ofori\u00a0got a hand to a cross releasing\u00a0his side on a counter that ended with Partey\u00a0firing just wide.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/6.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-359852\" src=\"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/10\/6-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"6\" width=\"620\" height=\"414\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Black Stars\u00a0had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside when Daniel Amartey, who captained the side, headed home from a free-kick, only for the linesman&#8217;s flag to go up.<\/p>\n<p>It was the Black Stars who started the second half stronger but were unable to create any clear-cut chances.<\/p>\n<p>Uganda should have taken the lead as a fantastic cross found the head of\u00a0Nsibambi who headed wide from about\u00a0five yards out.<\/p>\n<p>They were almost made to rue that miss as Frank Acheampong\u00a0was barged over in the Ugandan box in what looked like a clear penalty shout but the referee waved the appeals away.<\/p>\n<p>Chances were few and far between for the rest of the game with both sides restricted to shots from range which barely threatened either keeper.<\/p>\n<p>The Black Stars had the ball in the net again with seconds to play but the goal was ruled out, wrongly again, for offside sparking a fracas after the final which came almost immediately after.<\/p>\n<p>Ghana will now face a nervous wait as Egypt host Congo on Sunday, where a draw will end the team&#8217;s chances of making it to Russia.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;<\/p>\n<p>By: Edwin Kwakofi\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<br \/>\n<a class=\"twitter-follow-button\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/EdKwakofi\" data-show-count=\"false\">Follow @EdKwakofi<\/a><br \/>\n<script>\/\/ <![CDATA[ !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=\/^http:\/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+':\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs'); \/\/ ]]><\/script><br \/>\n&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ghana&#8217;s hopes of qualifying for the 2018\u00a0World Cup in Russia are all but over after they were held to a 0-0 draw by Uganda in Kampala in a game marred by poor refereeing decisions. Saturday&#8217;s clash was billed as a make-or-break for the World Cup hopes for both sides, with Uganda two points behind Egypt [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":359851,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,10,11],"tags":[454,455,457],"class_list":["post-359837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-football","category-slider-1","category-top-stories","tag-2018-world-cup-qualifiers","tag-black-stars","tag-uganda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=359837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=359837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=359837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=359837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}