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Ghana Fans Unhappy With Mali World Cup Draw

Despite rescuing a point from a difficult encounter against Mali, fans of the Black Stars were unimpressed by their side's performance...

Nov 16, 2009 1:05:23 PM

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Fans of Ghana are unhappy with the national team, though they managed a 2-2 draw game against Mali in World Cup qualifying over the weekend.

The West African nation had already qualified, but the fans complained of a lacklustre performance from the senior players in the team.

“The coach should have given a chance to the new faces in this game to step up the morale. We had qualified they are taking everything for granted,” Evelyn Banson told Goal.com.

“It was evidently clear that the few young faces that came into the game in the dying moments changed its pace. We don’t have to relax because our FIFA ranking counts.”

Francis Forson thinks the players were over complacent and it is about time the coach introduced more junior players into future matches.

“Kwadwo Asamoah was superb on Sunday. It is always refreshing to see new faces gingering up the game. That is what the fans want,” he stated.

The Black Stars won Group 4 with 13 points. Mali and Benin also qualified alongside them for the African Cup of Nations.

The Malians had come to the backyard of the Black Stars with revenge on their minds after sinking 2-0 at the hands of the star-studded side in June.

Home captain Stephen Appiah almost sent the Malians wailing in the seventh minute. Youngster Samuel Inkoom was brought down by a visiting defender. From the resultant free kick, an Appiah header hit the post and bounced back for Sulley Muntari, but he unable to direct it home.

Ghana dominated the early exchanges but strikers Asamoah Gyan and Matthew Amoah missed good scoring opportunities set up by Appiah and Chelsea midfield powerhouse Michael Essien.

Although Ghana – the first African nation to qualify for the World Cup – paraded their top players, they found it difficult to contain the Malians, who were without their key stars - Frederic Kanoute, Seydou Keita and Mahamadou Diarra.

Matthew Amoah had to rescue the Ghanaians in the 65th minute after Lassana Fane gave Mali the lead in the 24th minute.

However, the Eagles stepped up their game, substitute Tenema N'Diaye giving them a 2-1 lead. With six minutes of regulation time remaining, Ghanaian midfielder Anthony Annan scored his first international goal to make it 2-2, and the score would thereafter remain untouched.

Ghana already have their minds on preparations for the Nations Cup. They play a friendly against Angola on Wednesday in Luanda.

K.N.S Mensah, Goal.com

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