Ghana Premier League: Legon Cities 1-2 Hearts – Afriyie Barnie weaves magic as Ansah Botchway & Obeng Junior restore Phobians to league summit
Hearts of Oak have returned to the summit of the Ghana Premier League table following their deserving 2-1 win over Legon Cities FC on Thursday evening at the Accra Sports Stadium.
All three goals of the clash were scored in the first-half with the Phobians taking a 2-0 lead before Nigerien forward Victorien Adebayor registered his first goal of the score in the jersey of the Royals.
Ghana youth attacker Daniel Afriyie Barnieh produced a moment of magic and inspiration for the Phobians as his jaw-dropping skill saw two Cities defenders beaten inside the box with his supreme nimble foot and energy as he weaved past the defence men before laying the pass to Kwadwo Obeng Junior who has positioned himself in space to score the opening goal and register his 9th league goal of the campaign for the Phobians.
Hearts continued to exert their energy and forced their presence on the game and 9 minutes after Obeng’s equaliser, the Phobians doubled their lead through midfielder Frederick Ansah Botchway. The former Liberty Professionals box-to-box midfielder who came in for Emmanuel Nettey in the starting XI swept home a screaming low grounder after Salifu Ibrahim’s corner kick was ganged out of the box by the Cities defence men.
The Phobians enjoyed a bright start to the game. Obeng Junior should have grabbed the opening goal inside the 14th minute. Salifu and Afutu combined well in the middle with the former weighing a ball into the box. Afriyie Barnieh applied a flicking header to the path of Obeng and the gangling forward pulled the trigger but Cities Sylvester Sackey was well positioned to prevent the goal.
As the tie travelled from the quarter mark Cities came into the game strongly with Nasiru Moro, Michael Ampadu and Jonah Attuquaye causing problems for the Hearts defence but Robert Addo Sowah and Mohammed Alhassan contained the pressure from the host defence.
Hearts duly opened the scoring on the 28th minute mark through Obeng Junior before Frederick Ansah Botchway netted the second from a Emmanuel Nettey trademark effort.
Nigerien international Victorien Adebayor scored a sensational free kick from 20 yards to halve the deficit for the Royals but, none of the two sides could add to their tally before the second half petered out.
Hearts have moved back to the top of the league table with the latest results and are in the best of forms in the Ghana Premier League having won 7 of their last 8 league games.
Source: Sports
