JOHANNESBURG, November 2 – Agnes Aduaku was the toast of the Black Queens of Ghana as her brace helped her team recover from a goal down to beat Algeria 2-1 in a CAF African Women’s Championships match at Sinaba stadium on Tuesday.
The win put the West Africans top of Group B with three points ahead of reigning champions Equatorial Guinea who were held to a 2-2 draw by Cameroon earlier in the day.
The Ghanaians had the worst possible start going a goal down after four minutes when goalkeeper Gladys Quansah missed a long ball by Isa Oudah with the ball dropping underneath the crossbar.
Her coach was understandably furious and when she conceded a corner off another mistake, Anthony Edusei decided he had seen enough hauling her off and replacing her with Memunatu Sulemana.
With the goalkeeping sorted, Ghana worked its way back into the game with Portia Boakye testing the Algerian goalie with a stinging drive on 41 minutes.
Eduseio was still looking for solutions bringing on Adjoa Bayor and Leticia Zikipi as he sought to turn things around in the second half.
The breakthrough came on 62 minutes when Aduaku controlled the ball at the edge of the area before thumping home an unstoppable shot off the upright.
The goal lifted the spirits of the crowd in the stadium which backed the West Africans throughout the match.
The Queens could smell blood and they poured forward in search of a winner with Aduaku popping up with the winning goal on 72 minutes with a close range finish after the Algerian defence had failed to clear their lines.
EQUATORIAL GUINEA 2 CAMEROON 2
The Indomitable Lionesses fought from two goals down to share the spoils with the defending champions in Tuesday’s earlier match.
The 2008 champions got off to a flying start going two goals up in the first half hour. Boho Jade scored the opening goal two minutes into the match talking advantage of a defensive slip up to flick the ball home off a throw in.
She was this close to making it 2-0 six minutes later when her freekick hit the bar with the keeper well beaten.
They went two goals up on the half hour mark when Cameroonian keeper Fouda Adrienne made a mess of a right wing cross and Jumaria Barbosa slid in the rebound.
Cameroon however went into half time with their tails up after Christine Manie pulled one back with a well struck freekick on the stroke of halftime.
They got back on level terms on 54 minutes through Michele Mani Ngono whose low shot from the edge of the area crept in at the far post.
