England drew 0-0 with Ghana on Tuesday.
(picture alliance via Getty Images)
Ghana bunkered down against England on Tuesday, and it worked to perfection.
The Black Stars tied England 0-0 as both teams now have four points through two Group L games. After beating Panama to open the World Cup, Ghana has a high probability of advancing to the knockout rounds of the World Cup for the first time since advancing to the quarterfinals in 2010 before being eliminated in controversial fashion by Uruguay and Luis Suarez‘s handball.
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England peppered the Ghana goal in the final minutes, but was unable to find the game-winner. Its best sequence came after Benjamin Asare saved a shot by Bukayo Saka before Nico O’Reilly‘s header hit the crossbar and Harry Kane sent the rebound over the goal.
In added time, England had a fantastic chance off a corner, but a certain goal was headed off the line.
Ghana’s strategy was evident from the start. It was content to maintain its defensive shape in front of goal and force England to methodically break it down. That resulted in the first game all tournament where neither team had a shot on goal in the first half.
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Things were livelier in the second half, and Ghana ended up having a couple chances on the counter. The best opportunity to steal all three points and potentially the group win came with less than 15 minutes to go, but Antoine Semenyo accidentally blocked Prince Adu’s shot after Adu had gone to ground.
The sequence ended up being all for naught as Semenyo was flagged for offside.
England can’t break Ghana down
England came into the game with a very realistic chance of wrapping up Group L with one group stage match to go. England could have taken the group with a win over Ghana and a Croatia win over Panama later in the day.
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However, the group will go to the final day with Ghana playing Croatia and England taking on Panama.
England took 18 shots to Ghana’s two, but only four of them were on target and its passing stats absolutely dwarfed Ghana. England attempted 644 passes and completed 583. Ghana? It attempted just 192 passes and completed 131. At one point in the first half, England had 242 passes to Ghana’s 32.
England manager Thomas Tuchel brought on attackers like Saka, Eberechi Eze and Marcus Rashford in his attempts to find the winner. But no one could.
Will that ultimately cost England? Maybe, but the odds still favor the Three Lions to be the best in Group L. As long as England beats Panama on Saturday, Ghana has to beat Croatia and also pass England on goal differential to win the group.
