Ghana vs Nigeria - Africa Cup of Nations Quarterfinal LiveBlog

We kick off the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-finals today with the big one. Ghana vs Nigeria, Black Stars vs Super Eagles, for a place in semi-final and a big bagful of West African bragging rights.

Ghana 2-1 Nigeria

Essien 45+ - Yakubu (pen) 34′
Agogo 82′


Quarterfinal
Date: Sunday, February 3rd
Kick-off: 1700 GMT (1200 EST)
Venue: Ohene Djan Stadium, Accra

- Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting. Here’s hoping there’s as much drama in the Cote d’Ivoire vs Guinea game later today.

- Brave brave stuff from the Black Stars. It looked like Nigeria’s game after Mensah was sent off, but instead of sitting back and preying for penalties Ghana went forward when they could and got their reward.

WCB Man of the Match: Sulley Muntari, pulled the strings in Ghana’s midfield and took on extra responsibility after Essien had to move back to defence.

FULL-TIME That’s it. Ten man Ghana claim a historic 2-1 win over Nigeria.

90+ It’s taken short instead and worked into the box, Danny Shittu takes two swings but missses.

90+ Annan brings down Eromoigbe in Taye Taiwo free kick territory.

- Three minutes of injury time.

89′ Ghana under pressue. Essien tries a calm header back to Kingson but it’s misdirected. Kingson tries to rescue the ball with an acrobatic clearance but it’s no good. Ghana need to stay calm. Nigeria need to keep the pressure on.

88′ Berti Vogts flippig through the Help Wanted section of the paper. Sulley Muntari clears a cross with a diving header.

87′ It’s all Ghana. Kingston showing off again, rolling the ball around. Dramani doing all kinds of stepovers. Ghana taunting Nigeria!

86′ Kingston doing a bit of keepy-uppy on the right. You can’t tell they’re down a man.

85′ Ghana catch Nigeria on the counter, Kingston draws a save from Ejide.

84′ Mike Obi off for N’Soffour. Mikel Obi not smiling.

-Now Ghana’s ten remaining playes are going to have to withstand a Nigerian onslaught.

82′ GOAL!!! Muntari gets it to the back post and Agogo is there for the tap in. 2-1 to Ghana with under ten minutes to go.

81′ Agogo turns Yobo but just misses the target.

79′ Uche down after running into Essien. Essien didn’t even see him, but his sheer strength is enough to knock Uche down. That’s why he’s called The Bison.

77′ Dramane (recently on for Owusu-Abeyie) gets down the left and gets a shot at Ejidie. Ghana not sitting back.

75′ Mikel Obi scythes down Annan with a horrible tackle. Annan not happy and takes a little swipe at Mikel Obi, who goes down clutching his face as if a grenade just went off in his eye. Both men roll around on the floor, just in time for Oscar season.

73′ Ghana work a passing move until Agogo has a run at Nigeria’s defence. He gets down the outside but can only shoot from a very narrow angle which Ejide saves.

71′ Etuhu and his cramp are off, Richard Eromoigbe of Levski Sofia is on.

69′ Agogo looked short of ideas when faced with four Nigerian defenders. His hopeless shot os deflecetd for a corner, but Ghana don’t have enough bodies forwards to make any use of it.

67′ Seems like everyone’s going down with cramp. Dickson Etuhu is down and Sulley Muntari (who had the same thing about two minutes back) is very Samaritanly helping him out by stretching his leg.

65′ Looks like Agogo is now alone up front. Essien has moved to central defence.

62′ Ghana make the sub. Kingson on, Asamoah Gyan off.

61′ Taiwo recives a short pass from the free-kick and unleashes one of his left footed stingers. Kingson saves. From he rebound Danny Shittu forgets he’s a defender and tries a volley, there’s an even worse shot from the rebound and another shot from Mikel Obi which is blocked. Ghanaian hearts must be pounding.

60′ Red Card!!! Odemwingie was through on goal and ran across the front of Mensah, who couldn’t avoid tripping him. Mensah is off. And he’s not happy about it. Bad bad news for Ghana.

- Laryea Kingston is taping up his ankles. I’m guessing Kingston for Gyan, with Owusu-Abeyie going up front.

56′ Muntari strides out of defence and plays a great diagonal ball to Gyan, who can’t quite reach it. Gyan’s looks injured, and Le Roy might do well to take him off. Gyan even makes a twirly motion with his finger which suggests as much.

51′ Odemwingie turns and turns and turns like a dog chasing his tail until he finally gets a pacy but too direct shot at Kingson.

48′ Mensah, Addo and Kinsgon get confused at who should take responsibility for a Nigerian through ball. With John Mikel Obi approaching Mensah decides to fall on the ball, which then squeezes out from under him for Kingson to claim like a new born baby. Weird, but it worked.

46′ Ghana keeper Kingston comes off his line for header, but Yakubu hits it back over his head. Kingston is back just in time to tip it over. Great stuff from the Yak.

45′ Half number two is underway.

HALF-TIME Nigeria barely have time to kick off before the whistle goes. 1-1 at half-time.

45+ GOAL!!! Michael Essien gets his head to an Owusu-Abeyie free kick. His header hits the post, but then bounces in. That’ll change the hald time team talks.

- Wouldn’t be a huge surprise if we saw a red card today. Three minutes of stoppage time.

45′ Asamoah Gyan gives a Danny Shittu an elbow in the head while contesting a header. Gyan gets a yellow card, Shittu gets an icepack for his bonce.

43′ Uche very nearly finds Yakubu with a ball across the face of goal, but Mensah and Addo both intercept.

41′ Owusu-Abeyie gives his left foot another go. Not very convincing technique-wise but only just wide of the post.

40′ John Mensah does an accidental backflip vault over Yakubu. 9.0 for the effort but 2.0 for the flat-on-his-back landing. Ouchy

- If Nigeria are going to defend (they seem to make that 4-3-3 into 4-5-1 when needed) then Ghana’s track record of breaking teams down is not good.

37′ Essien goes for goal with a free-kick, but it’s slow and off-target. Muntari really should be taking all the free-kicks.

34′ GOAL! Yakubu puts the penalty low and to the left. 1-0 Nigeria.

33′ PENALTY! First Yakubu was downed by Addo, then Annan held off Uche. One of these was a penalty, just not sure which.

31′ Uche receives the ball between two Ghanaian defenders and is gifted a shot at goal, but offers a tame backpass looking shot at Kingson. Ghana have all the play but Nigeria very capable of scoring on the break, which appears to be the plan.

30′ Taiwo sends Yakubu through for a race against Addo. It’s basically a 50-50 ball which Yakubu winds through being bigger and stronger, but the ref awards Ghana a free-kick. Picky.

28′ Shittu and Gyan battle for the ball in the Nigerian area. Shittu goes down and gets the benefit of the doubt.

25′ Now Junior Agogo is through! But his first touch sends the ball ten feet in front of him. That’s why Gyan plays in Serie A and Agogo plays in English League One.

23′ Great stuff from Asamoah Gyan. He runs onto a throughball that’s just behind him and does a Zlatan Ibrahmovic like flick to lift the ball into his path then hits a half volley that rattles the post and boucnes clear.

21′ O-A may not have much of a left foot, but he can sure dribble. He very nearly wriggles through a packed Nigerian penalty area, but slightly overruns it so keeper Ejide claims it.

20′ Muntari bursts down the left and squares the ball to Agogo, who then finds Owusu-Abeyie. Taiwo makes sure O-A has no option but to shoot with his left, and when the high and wide shoty comes we all see why Taiwo did that.

17′ Nwaderi goes in late and a little too enthusiastically on Sarpei and gets a yellow card for his efforts. That’s both Nigerian fullbacks on a yellow now.

15′ Brilliant determined work by Muntari down the left. He was down on his arse at one point, but manged to get a low cross in. Joseph Yobo sticks a toe out and is lucky to give away a corner instead of an own goal.

11′ Uche finds Yakubu in the box, the Yak turns and flashes a shot just wide.

9′ Muntari tries a “Feindouno” from the free-kick by shooting instead of crossing from out wide. Finds the side netting.

8′ Taye Taiwo brings down Owusu-Abeyie out wide. Free kick for Ghana, yellow card for Taiwo.

5′ Sarpei shoots, blocked, Essien hits the rebound all the way back to Stamford Bridge.

4′ Gyan tries to meg Joseph Yobo. He should know better.

2′ Odemwingie brings down Pantsil in an attempt to get through on goal. Free kick, but impressive that a little man like Odemwingie can fell a big man like Pantsil.

0:10 We have the first foul and the first head to head confrontation. Nwaneri brings Muntari down from behind. Muntari gets in his face. What happened to all the hugs?

0′ Kick off. Here we go.

- Looks like Nigeria will have Yakubu as the spearhead, Odemwingie and Uche wide and Mikel Obi in the hole.

- Players shake hands and hug before the game. Always good to hug someone before you two-footed tackle them.

- National anthems being sung. Super Eagles a bit more vocal than Black Stars today.

- No Kanu for Nigeria, he’s still too injured. No Obafemi Martins either, he hasn’t really hit any form so far. Laryea Kingston is available again for Ghana after suspension, but loses his place to Annan, who had a good game in central midfield alongside Essien against Morocco.

- Lineups

Ghana: Kingson; Sarpei, Mensah, Pantsil, Addo; Annan, Essien, Muntari; Quincy, Agogo, Gyan

Nigeria: Ejide; Taiwo, Yobo, Shittu, Nwaneri; Olofinjana, Obi, Etuhu, Uche; Odemwingie, Yakubu

- We’re about 15 minutes from kick-off and Accra looks packed. Very very excited. I’m starting a rumour that the Superbowl has been canceled in America because everyone will be too exhausted to watch after this game.

Previews

This is the 60th time the two teams have met. Of the previous 59 encounters, Ghana have won 24, Nigeria 26, with 19 draws. Ghana embarrassed Nigeria 4-1 in last year’s Griffin Park friendly in 2007, but Nigeria beat Ghana 1-0 in 2006 Africa Cup of Nations Group D, a group Ghana didn’t get out of.

Scout Report - Ghana

The host look to be coming in to form as the the tournament progresses, especially midfielders Michael Essien and Sulley Muntari, who each helped the other score in the Group A finale against Morocco. Ghana also welcome back suspended winger Laryea Kingston, while the defence also looks solid, with John Mensah in particular looking like an insurmountable obstacle.

The only on-field worry continues to be the strikeforce. Asamoah Gyan did everything but score against Morocco and is under immense pressure to find the net, but both he and partner Junior Agogo have apparently been battling minor injuries and been restricted to light training.

Scout Report - Nigeria

Nigeria are not in form, but that makes the rivalry involved in this game a positive for them. Form goes out the window, including rubbish form. The Super Eagles started badly, with a 1-0 loss to Cote d’Ivoire and improved marginally for a 0-0 draw with Mali. But the Super Eagles didn’t really get going until the second half of the final game against Benin, which they eventually won 2-0. But even that’s not a very impressive result. There are all kinds of problems with Berti Vogts, who may or may not have lost control of the team.

Positives include the form of left-back Taye Taiwo, the eventual blossoming of John Mikel Obi into a beautiful midfield flower in the final Group B game, and the fact that one of Nigeria’s seven (no really, seven) strikers finally scored when Yakubu scored Nigeria’s second goal against Benin. Captain Nwankwo Kanu missed the last two games with a knee ligament injury, and faces a race against time to be fit for this one.

Team Blogs: Visit Inara on the Ghana blog and Emmanuel on the Nigeria blog.

Watching Online Streams:

http://www.myp2p.eu/broadcast.php?matchid=5745&part=sports
http://livefooty.doctor-serv.com/sun3.2/Ghana_Nigeria.html
http://livefooty.doctor-serv.com/sun3.2/Ghana_Nigeria2.html

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