On Thursday, Egypt and Ghana shared the spoils in a bombastic 2-2 draw in their second game of the Africa Cup of Nations. With two goals, Mohammed Kudus was the main attraction, but the Black Stars could not maintain their lead and ended up with just one point from their first two games. After drawing with Mozambique in their opening match, Egypt suffered a devastating setback when Mohamed Salah was injured and they were denied three points once more.
The game got out to a pretty even start, with neither team getting many good opportunities or possession of the ball. But in stoppage time in the first half, Salah tumbled down off the ball and was replaced with an apparent injury. Things went horribly wrong for Egypt and fantastically wrong for Ghana in a short period of time. After 60 seconds, Kudus scored a stunning goal from the edge of the box to give Ghana the lead.
When Mohamed Abdelmonem put the ball in the net early in the second half, Egypt believed they had tied the score, but the goal was disallowed for offside. Omar Marmoush, who was outstanding all game, tested Richard Ofori’s resolve with a risky attempt, but the Ghanaian goalkeeper made a great stop to deny Egypt another decent opportunity.
The next six minutes of this tournament might have been the strangest we have ever seen. Initially, Egypt took advantage of a terrible pass backwards by Inaki Williams, allowing Marmoush to score the equalizer. Two minutes later, Kudus once more saved the day by latching onto a pass and putting Ghana back ahead.
That lead, however, was short lived as Mostafa Mohamed scored another equalizer for the Pharaohs, who had only scored two points in as many games, following some excellent work from Trezeguet.
Mohammed Kudus, a forward for Ghana, had conflicting emotions following his country’s dramatic 2-2 draw with Egypt in Group C of the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023 in Abidjan.
It brings me joy to return. I put a lot of effort into helping my country and team by rising to the top. Kudus reflected on his path and returned to the national team, saying, “I need to be here.”
Even though Kudus scored twice in the thrilling draw, Ghana was only able to get one point out of the game. The striker for West Ham was visibly upset and expressed the wish that his goals would have a bigger effect on the outcome.
It’s a conflicting emotion. As a forward, you want the outcome to be affected by your aims. We were careless in our faults. Kudus acknowledged that the club needed to improve and turned his attention to the next games. “Now we’ll have to get back to work, win the next one, and then see what happens,” he said.
