Ghana’s amputee football team, the Black Challenge, defeated Morocco 2-1 to win gold in the ongoing
African Paralympic Games, Accra 2023 in extra time.
Ghana came from a goal down to avenge an earlier defeat to the Moroccans and won the ultimate honour in the football event played at the Mc Dan Park in La, Sunday.
Morocco beat Ghana by the same margin at the group stage of the tournament to be the first to qualify from the group, leaving Ghana with a must-win situation in their last game against Liberia to qualify.
The tables, however, turned in favour of the Ghanaians with goals coming from Yussif Yahaya and skipper, Richard Attah Opentil,to cancelI lyass Sbiyaa’s opener that gave the Moroccans the advantage in the 20th minute and to give the Black Challenge the leader.
It was a hard-fought victory for Ghana as Yussif’s equaliser in the final minutes of the second half saved Ghana from a second defeat to Morocco and gave the home fans some relief.
The game then went into an extra time which saw Ghana take control of exchanges and took the lead five minutes into it.
They then held onto the slim lead though Morocco gave the host a tough challenge as they threatened the goal area for the equaliser on a number of times.
The African champions, Ghana, also had some few chances of their own to score another goal but failed to find the back of the net and eventually winning the trophy.
After the group stage, Ghana defeated Egypt 2-1 on Saturday to book the final place against the Moroccans who also thrashed Angola 4-2 to set up an awesome grand finale.
There were presentations to distinguished players and officials with the Best Player of the Tournament going to Ghana’s Mohammed Mubarak, who was exceptional throughout the competition.
The Best Coach and Best Goalkeeper awards went to Ghana’s coach, Stephen Obeng and Razak Seidu, respectively, while Goal King Award went to Zaher Mohammed of Egypt with five goals.
Best Referee went to Joshua Sylvanus with the Fair Play team award going to Uganda.
BY MICHAEL D. ABAYATEYE
