Cape Verde grabbed three factors within the Group B match as Rodrigues discovered the online at the demise.
Substitute Garry Rodrigues pounced in harm time to give Cape Verde a shock 2-1 win over four-time former champions Ghana of their opening recreation at the Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday.
The Black Stars seemed set to come away with a draw after Alexander Djiku headed dwelling to cancel out a Jamiro Monteiro aim for Cape Verde at the Felix Houphouet Boigny Stadium in Abidjan.
Majeed Ashimeru was additionally denied a aim for Ghana following a prolonged VAR test, however Cape Verde grabbed three factors within the Group B match as Rodrigues discovered the online at the demise.
It was a high quality victory for the island nation, who reached the knockout stage at the final AFCON, and places them high of the part after group rivals Egypt and Mozambique drew 2-2 earlier.
The night was additionally notable for the second-half look as an alternative of Andre Ayew, with the 34-year-old turning into solely the third participant to characteristic in eight editions of the competitors.
He now shares the report with Rigobert Song, at the moment coach of Cameroon, and Egyptian Ahmed Hassan.
Yet of far higher concern to Ghanaians is the outcome for a rustic whose tally of AFCON victories is bettered solely by Egypt and Cameroon.
However, their final title got here in 1982 they usually went out of the final version two years in the past within the group stage.
Chris Hughton’s workforce additionally got here right here off the again of a 1-0 defeat to the Comoros in a 2026 World Cup qualifier in November, and there are doubts about their probabilities of making a huge impact in Ivory Coast.
Their prospects on this recreation weren’t helped by the truth that Mohammed Kudus, having fun with a high quality season at West Ham United within the English Premier League, was lacking from the line-up and never even on the bench.
Cape Verde went forward within the seventeenth minute when Ghana goalkeeper Richard Ofori turned out a shot by Jovane Cabral and Monteiro, who has spent a lot of his profession in MLS, adopted in to rating.
Ghana, with important backing among the many crowd of slightly below 12,000, thought that they had equalised within the thirty sixth minute.
Ashimeru, of Anderlecht, rifled a shot from outdoors the world low into the nook, simply after an Antoine Semenyo cross was cleared by goalkeeper Vozinha and ricocheted again onto the woodwork off Ghana ahead Ransford-Yeboah Koenigsdoerffer.
VAR denies Ghana
Yet the aim was dominated out following a protracted VAR test, with the referee apparently ruling that Koenigsdoerffer was blocking the goalkeeper’s line of sight as he got here again from an offside place.
Djiku headed in Jordan Ayew’s supply to make it 1-1 on 56 minutes, and Ghana then despatched on Ayew in addition to Ernest Nuamah and Inaki Williams as they hoped to discover a winner.
Yet their defence appeared vulnerable and the aim that received it for Cape Verde was a horror present for the Ghanaians, as Ofori failed to cope with a low ball into the field and Rodrigues transformed to spark wild celebrations.
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