Portugal claimed all three points against Ghana Thursday evening in their Group H game with a 3-2 win to enhance chances of qualification to the round of 16 stage.
Portugal dominated proceedings in the first half but both sides went for the broke in the second half and Cristiano Ronaldo controversially earned a penalty in the 64th minute becoming the first player to ever score in five World Cups.
It wasn’t long before Ghana came back, with Andre Ayew slotting the ball past the Portuguese keeper at the 75th minute from a pass from teammate Mohammed Kudus.
Soon after, Joao Felix put Portugal back in the lead at minute 78, with Rafael Leao widening the lead two minutes later.
Ghana’s Osman Bukari managed to close the gap in minute 89, but it was too late for the Black Stars to come back.
Uruguay and South Korea, the other two teams in group H, ended their game earlier today with a 0-0 draw. The victory places Portugal in an early lead as the team aims to make it out of the group stage.
Former Nigeria international Julius Aghahowa bared his mind on the game in the World Cup studio of Brila FM Lagos.
The Group G clash looked to be any team’s for the taking but Portugal went in front in the 64th minute through Ronaldo who was on Tuesday relieved of his Manchester United contract.
“The penalty awarded to Portugal demoralized Ghana. The referee should have gone to the monitor to confirm that it was indeed a penalty. He didn’t and that affected the Ghanaians,” Aghahowa who was Nigeria’s star of the 2002 World Cup in Korda/Japan where he scored the Eagles, goal in the 2-1 defeat to Sweden said on radio.
“The penalty is contestable. My problem with that is the ref didn’t even go to check.
“But thankfully they scored two goals and spiritedly went for the third and should motivate the team going into the last two group matches,” the onetime Shakhtar Doneskt and Wigan Athletic forward said.
Izuchukwu OkosiIzuchukwu Okosi is a Nigerian sports and entertainment journalist with two decades of experience in the media industry having begun his media journey in 2002 as an intern at Mundial Sports International (MSI) and Africa Independent Television (AIT), owners of Daar Communications Plc.
In October 2004, Okosi joined Complete Communications Limited, publishers of Complete Sports newspaper and Complete Football magazine as a reporter and later script writer for the Complete Sports studio.
He worked there for 13 years until October 2017.
Okosi also worked various times as Correspondent, Content creator and Editor at Sports Market International Magazine, Opera News, All Nigeria Soccer Media and Iconic Media Watch.
He also undertook freelance writing gigs for some local and international organizations.
Okosi is a member of the Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN), Association of Movie Producers (AMP), Association of Voiceover Artistes of Nigeria (AVOA), Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).
He has been part of cast in some Nollywood movies and radio dramas including Blood Money 2, Scores To Settle, Dead End 2, Another Campus Tale and Battle Line.
Aside mainstream media and the entertainment industry, he has interests in scouting/unearthing of talents in the sports and creative sectors, exports business and property development.