England Vs. Ghana: 1-1 At Full Time After Entertaining Match

England drew 1-1 with Ghana in an international friendly at Wembley that drew over 80,000 fans and saw two players make their full debuts for England. An open, entertaining first half which saw two excellent chances for Dominic Adiyiah foiled by Joe Hart and Ashley Young first drawing a fine save from Richard Kingson and then hitting the crossbar from very close range. After forty plus minutes of each side somehow failing to score despite a host of opportunities, Liverpool’s Andy Carroll finally opened the scoring, smashing home a layoff from Stewart Downing.

The second half was less interesting than the first, but Ghana did grow into proceedings after struggling to keep possession against a midfield three of Jack Wilshere, James Milner, and captain Gareth Barry. Wilshere was withdrawn in the 69th minute for debutante Matt Jarvis, which forced England from their 4-3-3 shape into a 4-4-1-1. Meanwhile, the visitors had switched things up as well, adding wide players in Andre Ayew and Prince Tagoe, and from that point were much the better side. Eventually, their dominance paid off as Asamoah Gyan scored a brilliant equaliser in the 92nd minute, weaving through the heart of England’s defence before slotting the ball home past a helpless Joe Hart.

Matt Jarvis was the only England player to make his debut - Sunderland loanee Danny Welbeck made the jump from the U-21 squad to the senior side, coming in for Ashley Young in the 81st minute. His entrance was marked by a chorus of boos, as he had been eligible to play for Ghana by way of his parents’ nationalities, but instead opted to join the England setup due to being born and raised in Manchester. Welbeck, unfortunately, didn’t get too many touches.

There were a couple of nasty incidents in the game as well - Leighton Baines could probably have been sent off for a two-footed lunge on Isaac Vorsah in the first half and Milner might also have been shown a straight red for a professional foul on Gyan which essentially involved the City midfielder planting his studs in the back of Gyan’s calf. That’s not to say that Ghana’s players were little angels either. Substitutes Derek Boateng and Andre Ayew both found themselves in the referee’s book soon after their introduction, and the match was fairly feisty for much of the second half.

All in all, a draw was just about the right result. The first forty-five minutes were great fun, but the entertainment value died down somewhat when Ghana started to dominate possession rather than simply being happy to leave the match as a crazy pinball contest. Gyan’s goal, of course, be the enduring memory of what turned out to be a much better match than most pundits were predicting.