Following their epic stalemate in their second Group C game at the ongoing AFCON 2021 tournament on Friday, Ghana captain Andre Ayew has criticized Gabon.
The famous Abedi Pele’s son also explained why he and his team got into a scuffle with the Gabonese shortly after the game ended. When Jim Allevinah scored two minutes from full-time, amidst a cloud of controversy, the Black Stars were on their way to scoring their first points of the game.
The Ghanaians argue that the goal should not have counted because they were in possession of the ball when one of their players was hurt, thus they kicked the ball out of play as per association football rules.
“A Ghanaian player was [laying] on the field,” Ayew stated. At the post-match press conference, Ayew revealed, “We got the ball and we put the ball out because our player was on the field.”
You are expected to take the ball and return it to Ghana when the game resumes. It’s as simple as that. As a result, we were waiting for the ball to return, but it never did. And they kept playing, and that’s how they got the game’s sole open chance. That is all there is to it.
It’s a tiny group of them. They have disappointed me, but that is not a problem. We’re Ghana, and we’re going to win the final game and advance.”
After receiving a pass from Thomas Partey, Ayew went around his opponent and sent a shot past goalkeeper Jean Noel Amonome to give Ghana the lead in the 17th minute.
Meanwhile, Ghana will need a positive result against Comoros in their last group encounter on Tuesday to advance to the next stage of the competition.
