Grant leads Ghana to African Cup final amidst chaotic scenes

Avram Grant’s Ghana side booked their place in Sunday’s final of the African Cup of Nations after beating hosts Equatorial Guinea 3-0 in a match which was marred by violent crowd trouble.

Having gone into the break 2-0 up, thanks to Jordan Ayew’s penalty and Mubarak Wakaso strike, the players left the pitch under police guard as plastic bottles and objects were being thrown onto the pitch from the stands.

However, that was nothing to what faced the Ghanaian supporters once their team went 3-0 up with 15 minutes of play remaining when Andre Ayew tapped the ball home. Within three minutes, their fans were forced to walk on to the pitch and to amass behind one of the goals for their own safety as the home supporters continued to pelt them with objects which included rocks and broken mirrors.

Play was suspended for more than half an hour, riot police filed into the stadium to escort the Ghana supporters out of the stadium, while a helicopter was flown in to try and disperse the unruly crowd.

Play finally resumed for three minutes of injury time before the referee blew full-time on what was a shameful night for African football.

While Ghanaian officials called the stadium a ‘war zone, with Ghana FA president Kwesi Nyantakyi saying: “We are lucky that we haven’t lost any lives, though people have sustained various degrees of injuries arising from objects thrown at them,” Grant said: “I didn’t know what was happening, I saw something on the pitch, some incident or violence.

“I can’t say I wasn’t concerned, I care about the security of my players, it’s very important to me.” 

Ghana will take on Ivory Coast in Sunday evening’s final.