Match Report: Portugal beat Ghana in World Cup opener

Portugal emerged victors over Ghana for a 3-2 win at Stadium 974 to pick all 3 points at the expense of their West African opponents. 



It goes without saying that, the game had its moments, Otto Addo put a string of -5-3-2 formation, which had Alex Djiku, Mo Salisu and Amartey are the main center-backs in front of the goalkeeper, Ati Zigi with Baba Rahman and Clermont Foot’s player, Alidu Seidu as the right back ahead of Tariq Lamptey but it surprisingly the full-back impressed loads of people with his standout performance. 

The first half saw the Portuguese side dominate possession, 69 %, goal attempts of 7 with 2 on target which came in the first 10 minutes of the game but that didn’t deter the BlacStars from standing their ground to end the first half not conceding even though they created no outright chances in the first half due to their shape, structure and formation of the team which could only boast possession of 31%. 



The second half started in a similar fashion to the first, it wasn’t until the 62nd minute that, Mohammed Salisu and Cristiano Ronaldo went head-to-head for a challenge which saw the latter fall “softly” only to be awarded a penalty by American referee, Ismail Elfath, who failed to consult VAR for a review of the penalty incident which saw Portuguese captain convert from the spot, Andrew Ayew the Ghanaian side parity eight minutes away from the Portuguese lead, 1-1.

The 2016 European champions nicked two goals in less than three minutes before Red Star Belgrade player, Osman Bukari headed in a Baba Rahman cross to reduce the deficit to end the game 3-2.

In the end, Ghana will feel hard done by the first and third goals which should have been subject to VAR reviews but wasn’t used, they will need to regroup to beat South Korea who had earlier on drawn Uruguay in the other group game.