With a display that was sturdy and swift, Ghana stayed in the reckoning from Group A with a 4-0 victory over India. The result — a third defeat — at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium on Thursday ended host’s run in the FIFA Under-17 World Cup, but not without promise from this bunch of hard working youngsters.
Any apprehensions that India would feel the pressure against a far more organised opposition were dispelled in the first session that saw move and counter moves galore.
The focus was clearly on playing positive and India did its supporters proud by giving the opponents a run for their money. It was the second session that went Ghana’s way right through.
Ghana concentrated on attacking more on the right flank through Sadiq Ibrahim. The idea was to break away from the midfield and produce a scoring run with Edmund Arko-Mensa keeping pace by constantly overlapping and giving the Indian defence a torrid time.
For all their dominance, the Ghana lads could not translate the raids into goals and most of their moves died inside the box.
India looked to match Ghana by looking to score. Often the defenders left their guard and moved in support but lack of finishing hurt India. Obviously Ghana left little scope for India to explore by packing the defence.
Every miss by Ghana was cheered but it was a matter of time before the rampaging Africans slotted the first goal a minute from half time.
The dangerous Sadiq Ibrahim broke into the box and his weak attempt saw goalkeeper Dheeraj Singh foiling but failing to clear and a lurking Eric Ayiah got his boot to find the roof of the net.
Ghana gave ample indications that it would come back strongly on resumption since it had the endurance to maintain the pace.
Seven minutes into the second half Ghana scored again when a weak clearance by Jitendra Singh came back to Ayiah, who left-footed the ball into the corner.
The second goal took the wind out of the Indian camp and Ghana grabbed the opportunity to produce a series of forays on either flank.
The Indian resistance appeared shaky under the relentless onslaughts by the Ghanaians, who literally parked themselves in the rival half and scored through fag-end goals from Richard Danso and Emmanuel Toku.
The result: Ghana 4 (Eric Ayiah 44th, 52nd, Richard Danso 86th, Emmanuel Toku 87th) beat India 0.
