[ 2013-07-14 ]

Turkey 2013: Ghana beats Iraq 3:0 to win Bronze
Ghana saw off the efforts of Iraq to finish third
at FIFA U-20 World Cup, winning 3-0 in what was
ultimately a comfortable victory for the African
side.

Ebenezer Assifuah moved a step closer to claiming
the adidas Golden Boot with his sixth goal of
Turkey 2013, with his goal sandwiched in between
Joseph Attamah's opener and Frank Acheampong's
second-half strike.

Having missed the chance to play in the evening's
final in heart-breaking style – losing on
penalties to Uruguay – Iraq began the game
brightly. Third would eclipse their fourth-place
finish at the 2004 Olympics and they could have
been a step closer to it on two occasions inside
the first minute.

Firstly, Ammar Abdulhussein drew a save from
Richard Ofori after charging down the left wing
and firing across goal, before Mohaned Abdulraheem
broke down the same flank and cut back to Jawad
Kadhim who shot narrowly wide.

Iraq dominated proceedings from then on, though
troubling Ofori comparabily little, until the game
burst into life on the half hour mark. Assifuah
had his first effort of the night, firing just
wide from the corner of the box before, at the
other end, skill from Kadhim led to Mahdi Kamil's
cross causing havoc in the area. Lawrence Lartey
eventually got Abdulhussein's shot clear.

Then came the opener, as Ghana took the lead
against the run of play. Moses Odjer swung in a
corner from the left and Joseph Attamah rose ahead
of all others to head beyond Mohammed Hameed. It
was two with almost the last kick of the half when
the ball broke kindly to Assifuah, beat the
back-line with a sublime turn of pace and drilled
sublimely into the far corner.

Iraq went close straight after the break, with Ali
Faez's free-kick from 25-yards being beaten away
by Ofori. Ali Adnan, Iraq's star of their
semi-final, also began to push forward, showing
quick feet in the area, before having a shot
blocked by Richmond Nketiah soon after.

Abdulhussein spurned a great chance to halve the
deficit, skewing his shot wide from inside the
box. Hameed then almost gifted Ghana a golden
chance to put the game to bed, careering out of
his area to beat Assifuah to the ball, only to
miscontrol and have to fight it off Aboagye.

The was up for Iraq eight minutes later though.
After a great clearance by Dhurgham Ismael denied
Frank Acheampong providing one moments earlier,
the Anderlecht-bound forward got himself on the
scoresheet. A sublime through-ball by Aboagye
split the defence, with Acheampong on hand to
side-foot over Hameed.

Source - MyjoyOnline

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