Cape Verde beat Ghana to continue day of shocks at Cup

Garry Rodrigues scored a stoppage-time winner as the Cape Verde Islands beat four-time champions Ghana 2-1 at the Africa Cup of Nations finals.

Cape Verde’s Group  B victory continued Sunday’s sequence of surprise results.

It was the third match of the day in Abidjan and followed Nigeria’s 1-1 draw with Equatorial Guinea in Group A.

And Egypt needed a last-gasp penalty to draw with Mozambique in the opening Group B match at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium.

Cape Verde went ahead in the 17th minute when Dutch-born Rodrigues’s shot was parried by Ghana goalkeeper Richard Ofori, falling for Jamiro Monteiro to tuck away from close range.

Ghana thought they had equalised 10 minutes before half-time when Majeed Ashimeru struck a powerful shot into the net from outside Cape Verde’s penalty area.

But after a VAR check it was disallowed because Ransford Konigsdorffer, in an offside position, was deemed to be interfering by being in the goalkeeper’s line of sight.

Konigsdorffer was making his way back after inadvertently striking the upright when a punched clearance from Cape Verde goalkeeper Vozinha hit him and cannoned back towards goal.

Ghana did find parity 11 minutes into the second half, with Alexander Djiku heading home from Jordan Ayew’s corner, bending down to get his head to the ball as the islanders’ defence failed to clear an innocuous delivery.

The Black Stars might well have gone ahead, with Joseph Paintsil narrowly missing out at the back post after being teed up by Antoine Semenyo.

After that chances repeatedly fell Cape Verde’s way.

Djiku made a goal-line clearance to deny Bebe 20 minutes from time, and Rodrigues was twice denied in the last 10 minutes.

The breakthrough came in stoppage time after Mohammed Salisu failed to clear, and a clever touch from debutant substitute Gilson Benchimol took it past Ofori and into Rodrigues’s path.

Ghana veteran Dede Ayew came on with 28 minutes left to mark his participation in his eighth Cup of Nations tournament, equalling the record held by Cameroon’s Rigobert Song and Egyptian Ahmed Hassan.

Story continues

In the earlier Group B game, Mohamed Salah converted a stoppage-time penalty to spare Egypt’s blushes in a 2-2 draw with Mozambique, playing at their first finals since 2010.

In Group A, Nigeria, who were expected to win comfortably, were shocked when Iban Salvador netted a surprise opener for Equatorial Guinea against the run of play with a well-worked goal.

But Nigeria equalised two minutes later when Napoli forward Victor Osimhen, one of Europe’s deadliest strikers, headed home.

Ghana meet Egypt next on Thursday, with Cape Verde taking on Mozambique on Friday, both at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium.