Asamoah Gyan struck a stoppage-time equalizer to give Ghana a 1-1 friendly draw against England in their first-ever meeting on Tuesday.
In front of 20,000 Ghana fans at Wembley Stadium, the striker weaved his way past defender Joleon Lescott before curling the ball past goalkeeper Joe Hart.
“This goal is something historic — it is the first goal we’ve scored against England,” Gyan said. “I was twisting and turning, but honestly, I don’t know what I was doing, I was just trying to protect the ball.”
Photo: Reuters
“The English defenders are very intelligent, but they did not know if I was going to pass the ball, but I thought, well they might push me down, but they didn’t do that, so I thought, I’ve got a chance, so I took my chance,” he said.
Gyan’s late intervention denied Andy Carroll the chance to mark his first goal for England just before halftime with a victory.
Gyan was one of the few players who didn’t play 48 hours earlier in an African Cup of Nations qualifying match against Congo, having been suspended.
“It was very tough to play England at Wembley,” Ghana coach Goran Stevanovic said. “In three days we traveled a lot and I think tonight we did our best.”
England had longer to recover — and a shorter trip — after winning at Wales on Saturday in European Championship qualifying, with just four players surviving to feature for the second-string side.
The experimental lineup allowed Capello to hand debuts to Matt Jarvis and Danny Welbeck.
Carroll broke the deadlock when Ashley Young lofted the ball forward and Downing knocked it across for the Liverpool striker to slot through John Mensah’s legs and past goalkeeper Richard Kingson.
England could have been in front before Carroll struck, with Young coming close three times.
While one shot was blasted over and Kingson tipped over another effort, he squandered a golden chance in the 25th minute.
After racing forward to meet James Milner’s cross, he hit the crossbar when he had an open net.
Ghana, despite their travels, looked more potent than England after the break, with Jonathan Mensah coming closest to scoring when he headed over.
GERMANY V AUSTRALIA
AFP, MOENCHENGLADBACH, GERMANY
Germany’s stars shouldered the blame in the wake of their shock 2-1 defeat to Australia on Tuesday as the Socceroos claimed their maiden win over the hosts.
After Mario Gomez had put the Germans ahead with a first-half strike, two goals in two second-half minutes by David Carney and Luke Wilkshire floored the Germans.
Since finishing third in South Africa, Germany have failed to win any of their last four friendlies, but are undefeated at the top of their Euro 2012 qualifying group.
Germany coach Joachim Loew was punished for naming an inexperienced line-up that never recovered after the guests stunned their hosts by taking the lead and then refused to buckle when the Germans pressurized for an equalizer.
“It was a question of attitude,” striker Miroslav Klose said.
“You can prepare very well, but then you play a bit loosely come match day and pay the price,” he said.
The crowd vented their frustrations with loud boos and whistles in the second-half when the home side fell behind.
Gomez blamed the fans for his poor performance, after they booed and whistled their team in Moenchengladbach.
“I wasn’t able to concentrate fully,” Gomez said.
“Normally, my biggest competition for a place in the team is Miroslav, but at the moment, some of the fans are not making life easy,” he said.
Defender Mats Hummels, said he sympathized with the fans.
“You have to understand the whistles, it is pretty expensive to watch a football match these days,” he said. “It’s a few hundred euros to bring a family here and we didn’t perform.”
Selected results of other friendlies on Tuesday:
‧ Belarus 0, Canada 1
‧ China 3, Honduras 0
‧ Qatar 1, Russia 1
‧ France 0, Croatia 0
‧ Ireland 2, Uruguay 3
‧ Ukraine 0, Italy 2
‧ US 0, Paraguay 1
‧ Costa Rica 0, Argentina 0
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