The Black Stars of Ghana recorded a 3-1 win over Zimbabwe during the third match of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification tournament on Saturday in Cape Coast.
The Stars won the game with goals from Kudus Mohammed in the 5th minute, Thomas Partey in the 66th and Andre Ayew in the 87th. Zimbabwe scored a consolation goal through Knowledge Musona in the 49th minute.
Here are the five major things we noted from the game which is the first of Milovan Rajevac in his second stint as Ghana head coach.
1.Kudus Mohammed shines again
Boy wonder. He has never disappointed wearing the national colors. The Ajax midfielder delivered another top performance scoring the opening goal in the 5th minute.
2.Jordan Ayew has now gone 20 full games without a goal
The Crystal Palace attacker has now drawn blank in his last 20 games for club and country including national team friendlies. Certainly a difficult period for the former Olympique Marseille attacker who has 92 career goals.
3.Milovan started his best attacking players, all of them.
The Ghana manager fielded an ultra offensive line-up. Jordan Ayew, Kamaldeen Sulemana, Fataw Issahaku and Andre Ayew all started the game.
4.Andre Ayew’s role change
The captain of the side started the match as part of the double pivot alongside Thomas Partey with Kudus Mohammed preferred by Milovan Rajevac for the playmaking duties. But this plan did not work out well as Milovan brought on Baba Iddrisu , a defensive midfielder to partner Partey allowing the Arsenal man to often join the Ghana attack resulting second goal of the Stars.
Andre would go on to scored Ghana’s third goal to close the game at 3-1.
5.Partey bails out the Black Stars
The Arsenal scored a brilliant goal in the 66th minute to restore Ghana’s lead (2-1) all thanks to the fact that Baba Iddrisu who was brought to replace Fataw Issahaku , provided Partey the freedom to bomb forward.
After 3 games, Ghana now sits second with six points to South Africa who lead the group with a point more.
