The catharsis that Inaki Williams, Chris Houghton and football fanatics of Ghana went through when he put the Black Stars up by 1-0 with one minute of the six additional minutes left is inexpressible.
There couldn’t be a better time for Inaki Williams, 29, to score his first goal in the country of his parents, Felix Williams and Maria Arthuer, birth than scoring in the opening game of the most important World Cup to Ghanaians qualifiers.
It was a deja vu for Black Stars as they failed to spark as it has been the case in the year 2023. Less inspiration, few chances creation and inability to dominate opponents have been the Black Stars’ hallmark.
Inaki Williams, the Athletic Bilbao forward, who before the Madagascar game had played 11 times for the Black Stars with zero goals scored started on the right-hand side of the attack with Antoine Sememyo playing through the middle and Jordan Ayew occupying the left-hand side of the attack.
As Chris Houghton said in his pre-match conference yesterday, Inaki is predominantly deployed on the right-hand side of Athletic Bilbao’s attack and it makes him very effective so it wasn’t a surprise at all when he started him on the right side. When Semenyo was replaced by Ernest Nuamah in the 73rd minute, Inaki was pushed to the middle whilst Nuamah occupied the right-hand side of the attack.
Black Stars began to open up their opponents a bit more with Majeed Ashimeru playing an instrumental role in the second half. The golden moment arrived in the 95th minute when Nuamah on the right side of Madagascars’ defence found Gideon Mensah in space, Gideon passed to Ashimeru who returned it perfectly to Gideon and he delivered a cross with pinpoint accuracy for Inaki to head the ball to the net to give Ghana the lead.
“The goal was very dear to me because my family was in the stadium”, said Inaki Williams. The goal is more than dear to Ghanaians in toto because we can’t afford to miss this 2026 World Cup.
The first win of the qualifiers is so splendid as Ghana will prepare for the Comoros clash on Tuesday. When Ghana needed a saviour, Inaki Williams was the guy to save them.
Ghanaians will hope that his beautiful header will be the first of many goals to be scored by the powerful Athletic Bilbao forward as the country has struggled to replace the legendary Asamoah Gyan.
