Portugal V Ghana World Cup 2014

Portugal V Ghana Fifa World Cup 2014

After match synopsis in red!!

Beers: Group G of Beer World Cup: http://thisdrinkinglife.com/world-cup-beer-group-g/

Who is set to win the battle of the beers? Super Bock V ? Unfortunately I couldn’t source any beer from Ghana so this will be a one sided affair. Click on picture for a preview of the beer.

Superbock V ? : 1-0 win for Super Bock as I couldn’t source a beer from Ghana. Click on links below for full beer information and reviews

PreGame:

Ghana: Just as Ghana have a slim chance of qualifying for the next round of the Cup their whole world starts to collapse all around them in a comical fashion. They have sent home Sulley Muntari, and Kevin-Prince Boateng for indiscipline, and this is hot on the heels of the story about Ghana’s government sending more than $3m cash on a chartered plane to Brazil to appease the players, who threatened to strike in a row over appearance fees. This seems to happen with African teams every four years.

It’s not all bad news though as Michael Essien might return tonight, and if they take their chances and beat Portugal, and hope that Germany beat the USA, they could easily move into the last 16 of this competition.

Ghana have shown in their game with Germany that they have huge confidence levels so they wont be afraid to attack Portugal from the start. They have the ability and the heart to win.

Another positive is that A Gyan is on form and playing well in this World Cup. He also has the added incentive that if he scores one more goal he will overtake the legendary Roger Milla as the all-time top African goalscorer at the tournament. Against a very porous Portuguese defence he will get chances.

Hopefully the Ghanaian’s will play as more of a team tonight, and when in good positions actually pass the ball rather than shoot on sight all the time. Jordan Ayew played well in the last game but he had numerous chances to square balls in the penalty box for better placed teammates to score rather than himself going for the spectacular. For all the talk of the greatness of the German game, Ghana should have won, and that 2-2 draw will be no consolation if they exit tonight

Tonight Ghana have a real chance, but what is definite for sure is that they will play entertaining football. Win, lose, or draw, they are box office stuff.

Portugal: It is the first game that will come back to haunt the Portuguese tonight. The mauling they got from Germany in the first game means that if they don’t win by a bagful of goals, and hope Germany easily beat the USA, they are out. For a team that doesn’t score a lot of goals and a Ghanaian defence commanded by the excellent Mensah, they have no hope of getting through. We are talking about a 5 goal swing in their favour. No chance.

All eyes will be on Ronaldo as he still has not got off the mark in this World Cup. His rival Messi is up to 4 goals and all Ronaldo has done so far is got an assist. Not that he has played badly, but the Portugal team are very weak, so its a difficult go it alone job for Christiano.

I am not even sure if Portugal have the ability to beat Ghana, never mind trash them. It might be a long frustrating night for Ronnie. Wonder what of this World Cup so far will make it onto his upcoming movie CR7, a two minute montage perhaps?

A more detailed review on Ghana here and on Portugal here

Only saw highlights of this macth as I was watching the other game in the group USA V Germany live.

Cristiano Ronaldo finally got on the score sheet but it was too little too late as Portugal went out of the World Cup, not scoring the three extra goals they required to progress in the competition. It was always going to be a very difficult task especially against a very strong Ghanaian team. Ronaldo’s final tally for this competition was one goal and one assist, but to be fair to CR7 he was carrying a niggly injury that affected his overall performances in the games. At 29 he still has one more World Cup in him, hopefully he and Portugal will be back in Moscow 2018.

Asamoah Gyan, also got on the score sheet, getting an equaliser, with a headed goal, and surpassing the famous Roger Milla to be top African scorer in World Cup history, with six goals to his name.

Portugal had taken the lead with a very fortuitous goal, when Boye sliced the ball into his own net. A dream start for Portugal. Ronaldo had a few chances in the game to score: a close-range header hit straight at the goalkeeper, a free kick that was just wide, and hitting the crossbar in a cross come shot, he had definite chances all throughout the game. Portugal could, on another day, have got the goals they needed to overtake the USA on goal difference. Just not this time around.

For Portugal the first game hammering by Germany did them for this World Cup, they never recovered from it. For Ghana money issues and discipline problems overshadowed all their preparations, and they most wonder how they didn’t manage to qualify considering they were unlucky not to get a result against the USA, should have beat the Germans, and could have also taken a draw with the Portuguese. Disappointing, all things considered.