{"id":88999,"date":"2015-02-05T22:02:12","date_gmt":"2015-02-05T22:02:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/4cd.e16.myftpupload.com\/?p=88999"},"modified":"2015-02-06T06:00:36","modified_gmt":"2015-02-06T06:00:36","slug":"ghana-afcon-final-chaotic-semi-equatorial-guinea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=88999","title":{"rendered":"Ghana through to AFCON final after chaotic semi against Equatorial Guinea"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ghana will face the Ivory Coast in the final of the African Cup of Nations on Sunday after they beat host nation, Equatorial Guinea by three goals to nil, in a match that was marred by chaotic scenes involving the home fans, which put play on hold for about 30 minutes.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37194 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/sport.citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/B9GyonJCQAINnNU.jpg\" alt=\"B9GyonJCQAINnNU\" width=\"599\" height=\"473\" \/><\/p>\n<p>A first half penalty from Jordan Ayew and a Wakaso goal just before the break put the Stars in a commanding position at half-time\u00a0before a second half strike by Andre Ayew sealed the result for the Black Stars before the break in play.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37193 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/sport.citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/B9GyolvCcAARpmU.jpg\" alt=\"B9GyolvCcAARpmU\" width=\"600\" height=\"413\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The Equatorial Guinea fans, disappointed by the scoreline pelted the Ghanaian players and officials with bottles and other objects resulting in clashes between them and security personnel at the stadium, who threw tear gas into the crowd in an attempt to control the situation.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37181 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/sport.citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/80819983_ghanacelebrateafphero.jpg\" alt=\"_80819983_ghanacelebrateafphero\" width=\"1376\" height=\"774\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Ghana went into the semi final as clear favourites to set up a mammoth final against the Ivory Coast, who had already booked a place after beating DR Congo on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The hosts, however were not overawed by the occasion and threatened a few times in a first half devoid of much goal-mouth action.<\/p>\n<p>Balboa sliced wide after a lovely counter, before Nsue volleyed straight at goalkeeper Razak Brimah from a long throw.<\/p>\n<p>The y would also have felt hard done by when Edu robbed Mubarak Wakaso of the ball, in what seemed a great tackle, and was through on goal only to be pulled back by the referee&#8217;s whistle.<\/p>\n<p>They soon paid for their lack of composure in front of goal in the 42nd minute, when Christian Atsu sliced the Guinean defence open with a brilliant pass to Kwesi Appiah who was brought down by Guinean keeper, Ovono who had rushed out of his goal.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37204 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/sport.citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/80819942_jordanayewpenaltyap.jpg\" alt=\"_80819942_jordanayewpenaltyap\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Jordan Ayew, in for injured captain Asamoah Gyan, stepped up and sent the keeper the wrong way to put the Black Stars in front.<\/p>\n<p>The hosts were keen to resume the game quickly to find an equaliser before the break and won a corner soon after.<\/p>\n<p>However, in their bid to go in at the break level, they left gaps at the back and a clearance from the corner left the Stars with a numerical advantage on the counter.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37208 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/sport.citifmonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/80819946_mubarakwakasocelebratesgetty.jpg\" alt=\"_80819946_mubarakwakasocelebratesgetty\" width=\"512\" height=\"288\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Christian Atsu, once again was the architect as he found Mubarak Wakaso, who controlled, stepped past a defender and slotted the ball into the back of the net.<\/p>\n<p><strong>More soon<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/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><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ghana will face the Ivory Coast in the final of the African Cup of Nations on Sunday after they beat host nation, Equatorial Guinea by three goals to nil, in a match that was marred by chaotic scenes involving the home fans, which put play on hold for about 30 minutes. A first half penalty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":0,"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":[],"tags":[29,3],"class_list":["post-88999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","tag-dr-mahamudu-bawumia","tag-ghana-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88999","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\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=88999"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88999\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=88999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=88999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=88999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}