Ghana, Portugal out of World Cup
JOBURG - Ghana is unable to join Nigeria and Algeria in the round of 16 in world cup. Residents share their views.
Germany, Belgium, USA and Algeria progressed while Ghana, Portugal, Russia and Korea Republic played their last games on the last day of group matches at the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil, (day 15 on 26 June).
Algeria will now play Germany and USA will play Belgium in the upcoming round of 16.
Before Portugal beat Ghana 2–1 in their group G match, Ghana was impaired by the loss of Sulley Muntari and Kevin-Prince Boateng after they were indefinitely suspended by the Ghana Football Association (GFA) and lost their world cup accreditation.
Muntari was punished for physically attacking an executive committee member of the GFA and Boateng for verbally abusing his coach Kwesi Appiah.
This may have contributed to Ghana’s poor performance, as Boye of Ghana gave Portugal the lead through an unfortunate own goal, a miss-clearance that deflected the ball in from a cross in the 31st minute.
Gyan equalised for Ghana, heading a cross in in the 57th minute.
But Ronaldo won the match for Portugal, finishing well after another failed clearance in the 80th minute.
Portugal did not score enough goals to leap-frog USA in the group.
Germany then beat the United States of America (USA) 1–0 in group G.
This was through their in-form striker Müller, who curved a shot in after USA keeper Howard blocked a shot straight to him in the 55th minute.
Belgium then beat Korea Republic (South Korea) 1–0 in group H.
In a similar fashion, Vertonghen scored after Korea Republic keeper Kim could only block Origi’s shot straight to the Belgium defender.
Algeria and Russia then drew 1–1 in group H.
Kokorin opened scoring for Russia, heading in from a cross in the sixth minute.
Slimani scored the equaliser that put Algeria through to the round of 16, with a header from a corner in the 60th minute.
Share your views of matches with us by tweeting with the hashtag #jozikicks, or comment on questions posted on our Facebook wall and we will include some of your views in our match summaries.
Read day 14’s action here.
