Ghana puts icing on the cake with 3-1 victory over Sao Tome and Principe

The Black Stars capped off their 2021 AFCON qualifying story with a 3-1 victory over Sao Tome and Principe in the last Group C qualifier played at the Accra Sports Stadium.

It came just 72 hours after the Black Stars booked their AFCON 2021 qualification in a 1-1 drawn game with the Bafana Bafana of South Africa.

Goals from Nichola Opoku, Jordan Ayew, and Baba Rahman was enough to see the stars stay on top of the group, which was a formality.

Coach CK Akonnor relied on top stars such as Thomas Partey, Andre Ayew, Kudus Mohammed, Jordan Ayew and Mubarak Wakaso to add a famous victory to his CV.

Defender Nicolas Opoku opened the scores with a 12 minutes header from a corner kick.

The Stars, looking for more goals to confirm their superiority in the group further marshaled more men upfront with Captain Andre Ayew moving deep into midfield to allow Thomas Partey to move further up.

Jordan Ayew on the other hand moved onto the left flank to create space for Wakaso and Kudus to dictate the pace of the game.

The Santomeans made few incursions into the Ghanaian defence, but Ismail Ganiu and Nicholas opoku were quick to destroy any threat.

Kudus Mohammed - Match Report - Black Stars 3-1 Sao Tome and Principe, Triple stars seal Qualification in grand style

With a packed defence, the Black Stars needed the individual brilliance of Captain Andre Ayew to break the back of their back, in the 29th minute the captain received a pass from Thomas partey around the centre circle, dribbled his way pass a host of legs before serving Jordan Ayew who was fouled in the box for referee to award the Ghanaians a penalty, Jordan Stepped up to slot in to the blind side of Goalkeeper Almeida Alder in the 30th minute of the first half.

The Santomeans kept their back line tight to prevent the Black Stars from scoring again to take the game to a first half end.

Thomas Partey in Action - Match Report - Black Stars 3-1 Sao Tome and Principe, Triple stars seal Qualification in grand style

The Black Stars returned to the second half to see a whole new system from the Santomeans who deployed a high line defensive play to stop the Black Stars from moving further into the goal area, that seemed to work in the early minutes of the second half, Coach Akonnor introduced Gladson Awako into the game for Osman Bukari, a tactic that saqw more ball playing midfielders in the side.

With Awako moving deep into midfield, Baba Rahman was allowed space to run the lines to catch the back of the opponents.

It took the Black Stars 15 minutes to break the back of the net from a Jordan Ayew shot corner to Awako who served Andre Ayew whose cross ball into the goal area found Baba Rahman whose volley ended at the Back of the Net.

The Black Stars seemed to enjoy play after the third goal, bus some amount of complacency at the back between goalkeeper Razak Abalora, Ismail Ganiu, and Imoro Ibrahim left Joceleay Carvalho picked a miss kick from Abalora to shoot straight into the net for a well deserved consolation goal.

The Black Stars sort to get another goal before the end of the game, but the Santomeans moved more deep into defence to prevent any further goal.

The Black Stars top the group after the end of the qualifiers with Sudan second having beaten South Africa 2-0 in the other group game played at Omdurman.