First half goal by winger Sadiq Ibrahim was all it took for Ghana to clinch a 1-0 victory against Colombia in a hard-fought opening FIFA Under-17 World Cup match at Jawahar lal Nehru stadium, here on Friday.
After a series of counter-attacks in the first half, the Black Starlets finally put the ball in the back of the net as an early cross by skipper Eric Ayah from the left flank was guided into the net by Ibrahim, who ran to reach the ball on the far post.
In a high-octane clash, Colombia failed to breach the tall, physical and organised defensive wall of the Africans. They came close to find a late equaliser through second-half substitute Deiber Caicedo — in for Brayan Gomez — in the 81st minute when his shot went inches off the target on the far post.
There was another promising attack inside the box straight after Caicedo's chance but Colombia forwards disappointed again as substitute striker Santiago Barrero failed to reach the lay-off pass by Jaminton Campaz.
Campaz was the only hope in the lost cause for Colombians as earlier in the first half the winger kept on testing the Ghana defence. His first shot on target — also the first of the match — from a tight angle was calmly collected by goalkeeper Danlad Ibrahim. This gave some much-needed confidence to the Colombian wide forward, who on two more occasions came threateningly close to score the opener for the South Americans. On both the situations, chances were created by midfielder Etilso Martinez. The missed chances cost dearly for the South Americans as Ghana soon found their feet in the game and started one attack after another until they found the winning goal through Sadiq.
"Sadiq is an important player for our team, he is a very fast winger, probably the fastest in our team,” said coach Paa Kwesi Fabin. "We could have buried the game through more goals but that's how the game is, you don't score all of them."
Attacking quartet of Sadiq, Ayah, Mohammed Aminu, Emmanuel Toku, lived up to the expectations with their threatening pace and creativity.
Colombians for the larger part of the match — except at the start and in the closing minutes — couldn't penetrate the box and ran out of ideas when injuries caused Colombian coach Orlando Restrepo to make forced substitution of injured Barrero, who came in the second half for striker Deyman Cortes, for Raul Vidal.
"We were forced to make a substitution for Barrero that limited our plan from the bench, Vidal too almost got injured, so yeah it was one of those days when I couldn't impact the game from the bench," said Restrepo.
Restrepo also informed that Barrero's injury situation is not yet certain and they are waiting for the medical report. He was actually their first-choice striker for the tournament but was out due to an old injury and was added to the squad after recovering. "Barrero is very important for our team that's why we took him in the squad after he recovered from injury. I would have liked to see him start but as he was still not 100 per cent, we played him as a backup," Restrepo revealed.
Colombia will next face India at the same venue on 9th October, while Ghana will take on USA.