One moment of madness ended an African power’s chances at the 2021 AFCON.
Andre Ayew’s sliding boot to the face of Comoros keeper Salim Ben Boina went from a yellow card offense to a straight red after Video Assistant Referee review, giving Ghana a huge mountain to climb after just 25 minutes of their group stage finale.
The Black Stars were already down 1-0 when Ayew went charging after Ben Boina’s fumbled rebound only to see Ben Boina collect the ball and his wild kick connect with the keeper’s face.
Comoros, the 132nd ranked team in FIFA’s men’s rankings, still had a fight on its hands against the 10-man Black Stars (No. 52).
Ghana needed a point to reach the knockout rounds and Comoros had lost to Gabon and Morocco. The match reached halftime 1-0 before Comoros’ El Fardou Ben added an assist to his early goal.
That wasn’t it for valiant Ghana, as Richmond Boakye and Alexander Djiku scored, the latter assisted by Arsenal’s Thomas Partey, to level it at 2-2 for the 10-men Black Stars. But Ahmed Mogni, the author of Comoros’ second goal, struck in the 85th minute to send Ghana crashing out of the competition and several teams into the knockout rounds with four points as Comoros’ three is currently the fourth-best third-place point total.