MOHAMMED SALISU went from World Cup sinner to Saint as Ghana’s Black Stars saw off a thrilling Korean fightback at the Education City Stadium.
The Southampton defender was gutted to concede the contentious penalty which allowed Cristiano Ronaldo to set Portugal on their way to victory in last week’s Group H opener.
But he more than made amends with the breakthrough goal against the sleepy South Koreans to keep his nation’s hopes alive.
Yet it still indeed a couple more goals from Ajax midfielder Mohammed Kudus to see Ghana over the line after a stunning second-half comeback inspired by Cho Gue-sung.
For the first 20 minutes Ghana could barely get out of their own penalty-area as they were forced to defend a steady stream of Korean corners.
But Son Heung-min’s delivery left a lot to be denied as he regularly failed to beat the first defender.
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And it wasn’t just the mask he was wearing to protect his fractured cheekbone which made him so anonymous.
For Harry Kane’s partner in crime at Spurs was virtually unrecognisable as his team again struggled to turn their possession into goals.
Now they must beat Portugal in their final Group H game on Friday to stand any chance of avoiding elimination at the first hurdle.
Ghana came into this match knowing that defeat for them would definitely mean they were out of the competition.
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And they must have been fearing the worst when they came under such a sustained early bombardment.
But having weathered that storm they scored with virtually their first attack of the game when Jordan Ayew’s 24th minute free-kick into the box dropped for Salisu to stab home from two yards out.
And it was a similar story when Ayew slung another cross into the mixer ten minutes later for Kudus to bury a header from close range.
Korea simply could not cope with Ghana’s aerial power and almost fell further behind in first-half stoppage time when Ayew’s corner was bundled just over by Thomas Partey.
They finally managed their first shot on target of the tournament in the 53rd minute but Cho’s header was met with a sharp save from Lawrence Ati Zigi.
And when sub Lee Kang-in robbed Tariq Lamptey within seconds of his introduction, Cho gave Ati Zigi no chance with his 59th minute header.
Two minutes later all hell broke loose when Cho struck again, hanging in their air to bury a back post header from Kim Jin-su’s excellent pull-back.
But just when it looked as though Ghana had hit the wall, Kudus struck again, steering a precise 71st minute shot into the far corner from Gideon Mensah’s inviting low cross.
And despite Korea laying siege to the Ghanain goal for the entire ten minutes of stoppage time they simply could not come up with another equaliser to save their bacon.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
