The World Cup dreams of the Black Sharks of Ghana came to a tearful and controversial end on Wednesday evening in Lagos as they lost to North African rivals Egypt aided by some terrible officiating.
Even with controversial officiating by the Madagascan and North African officials the Ghanaians took a two goal lead through Richard Osa and Mo Huseini before Ali Samir hit one back before the break.
Upon resumption, the Egyptians equalised before the Sharks reclaimed their lead but again it was short lived.
Encouraged by poor officiating against their opponents, Egypt equalised after an obvious push on a Ghanaian defender was ignored by the referee.
A controversial penalty was then awarded to Egypt that was hotly disputed but when calm was restored it was missed by Esam.
Ghanaian celebrations soon turned to despair as Esam made amends from his penalty miss with a close range goal.
Leading for the first time, the Egyptians appeared to be heading towards victory until a fierce drive from Sharks defender Reuben Semebia took the game to a nail biting 4-4.
In the dying minutes, several horrendous decisions that went against the Sharks almost led to a pitch side exchanges between the Ghanaian bench and match officials.
With extra time and penalties looming, disaster struck as exactly one minute to full time, Egypt struck with what proved to be the decisive goal that condemned Ghana to a second defeat.
Tears from Ghanaian players and officials at the final whistle could not change the reality that their Bahamas World Cup ambitions had come to an end.
