The Black Stars of Ghana were held to a 0-0 draw during an international friendly against the Elephants of La Cote d’Ivoire on Saturday evening at the Cape Coast sports stadium as goalkeeper Lawrence Ati Zigi produced a fine save in stoppage time to stop Max Alain Gradel’s freekick.
Here are the five key things we noted from this game.
1.Black Stars blunt attack is worrying
As the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification commences in September this year, it is worrying to see the attack of the Ghanaian national team so blunt. The team failed to score against Morocco and against the Francophone African country it was the same story.
2.Jordan Ayew continues to draw blank
The Crystal Palace endured a difficult in England as he scored just a goal in 35 games across all competitions in 2020/21 and in his last two international games for Ghana, Jordan has drawn blank.
Certainly it is a worrying period for the former Olympique de Marseille attacker whose work rate was acceptable in both games but the goals are really scarce for Jordan.
3.Daniel Amartey performs well
The Leicester City defender played well in the two friendly games of the Black Stars – against Morocco and the Ivorians completing 90 minutes in both matches. He was the main man at the back anytime the team had to defend against opponents in and around the Ghana penalty area.
4.Kudus proves his quality against Franck Kessie
The boy wonder never disappoints. He went head to head against arguably the best African central midfielder at the moment – Franck Kessie of AC Milan. The Ajax playmaker did not tremble anytime he came up against the Ivorian as he won couple of duels at the expense of the Milan player. Another good performance from Kudus.
5.Black Stars do not seem as hot favorites for AFCON 2022
Based on the two friendly games played by the Stars and the recent tournament results of the team, we do not intend to write them off completely because Ghana has always been part of the favorites for each of the past ten AFCON tournaments at least but this time around we do not see the Black Stars as part of the hot favorites during the Cameroon tourney.
Maybe this will do the team some good to finally land the African title for the first time since 1982.
