TORONTO: Caleb Yirenkyi scored a stoppage-time winner to earn Ghana a 1-0 win over Panama in a chilly and lively World Cup game in which the African side were forced to play the second half without starting goalkeeper Lawrence Ati Zigi on Wednesday (Jun 17).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After a lightning-quick counter-attack, Brandon Thomas-Asante charged forward before playing a precise pass into the area for Yirenkyi, who tapped home for his first competitive international goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ghana, competing in their fifth World Cup and looking to improve on their run to the quarter-finals \u200bin 2010, were forced to play the match without Thomas Partey after the midfielder was denied entry into Canada and lost a visa appeal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Panama, bolstered by a vociferous red-clad contingent of supporters, were energetic, purposeful and threatening in the final third while Ghana were unable to find their rhythm until the second half.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ati Zigi was by far Ghana’s best player in the first half, commanding his area impressively while his teammates were unable to manage a single attempt on the Panama goal, but he did not come out for the second half after a collision.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cecilio Waterman nearly put Panama in front in the second minute with a slick first-time strike from a brilliant pass from Amir Murillo, but was denied by a diving save from Ati Zigi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shortly after a hydration break that was loudly booed by spectators as light rain fell, Panama threw everything they could at the Ghana goal but failed to find a way through.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Panama demanded a penalty after Cristian Martinez went down in the box but their claims that there was contact from Jerome Opoku did not convince the referee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ati Zigi received treatment following a collision near the end of the first half and was replaced by Benjamin Asare when the game started to open up and Ghana found their stride.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jonas Adjetey almost scored for Ghana when he rose high to meet a cross with a header that forced a smart stop from Orlando Mosquera.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Thomas-Asante sent a gorgeous low cross into the box for Jordan Ayew but Panama defender Jiovany managed to poke it just wide of the post before the night’s second hydration break was booed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ghana will look forward to having Partey available for their Jun 23 match against England in Boston while Panama meet Croatia later that day in Toronto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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TORONTO: Caleb Yirenkyi scored a stoppage-time winner to earn Ghana a 1-0 win over Panama in a chilly and lively World Cup game in which the African side were forced to play the second half without starting goalkeeper Lawrence Ati Zigi on Wednesday (Jun 17). After a lightning-quick counter-attack, Brandon Thomas-Asante charged forward before playing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12903],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-417411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-12903"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417411","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=417411"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417411\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":417413,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/417411\/revisions\/417413"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=417411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=417411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/6gnx6dd.cc\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=417411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}