Ghana is about to be eliminated from the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) after Mozambique held them to a draw on Monday night.
Jordan Ayew’s two excellent halftime penalties were insufficient for Chris Hughton’s team as Mozambique rallied for two late goals to restore parity.
Reinildo Mandava last minute equalizer for Mozambique broke Ghana hearts and denied Black Stars of qualification for the knockout stages of 2023 AFCON despite Ghana taking two goals lead after 90 minutes.
Ghana were comfortably in de lead thanks to two goals from the penalty spot which were well converted by Jordan Ayew.
With only four minutes remaining before full-time, the Black Stars defenders completely lost it just as they have been doing in the previous games against Egypt and Cape Verde.
First, Ghana conceded a penalty when the referee judge that Andre Dede Ayew handled the ball inside the box. Geny Catamo converted the spot kick a minute into additional time.
Just before the close of the game, Reinildo Mandava rose high inside the box to head home the equalizer which denied Black Stars progress into the last 16.
Here is the final table standing of Group B;
After the third and final group stage match, Ghana will currently have to wait and see how many points the third-placed teams from the other groups have.
Meanwhile, each member of the Ghana national team would have pocketed $30,000 if the Black Stars advanced past the 2023 AFCON group stage.
Prior to the final group game tonight, Chris Hughton’s side had failed to win any of their first two group matches after losing to Cape Verde and drawing with Egypt.
If the team had progressed to the knockout stage, each player would have received a qualification bonus worth a total of $30,000, according to a 3Sports report.
Recall that after talking with the players, Akwesi Agyemang, vice chairman of the Black Stars management committee, announced prior to the Qatar 2022 World Cup that the winning bonus would be replaced with a qualification bonus.
Ghana’s 2023 Africa Cup of Nations budget, according to the Ministry of Youth and Sports, won’t be made public until after the competition.
