At the El-Wak Sports Stadium in Accra, Confederation Cup campaigners, Accra Hearts of Oak on Wednesday managed to beat Power FC 3-2 in a crunchy premier league.
Power who used the stadium as their home ground conceded the first goal in the seventh minute when Hearts' Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour overpowered a defender of Power to deliver an overhead kick to put his side ahead.
The home team responded to the challenge as they took over the game and pinned Hearts to their own area in search of the equaliser. Power after the sustained pressure fetched the equaliser through Samuel Ocran in the 14th minute though a long-range shot after receiving a cross from a colleague.
The game from then on witnessed series of hard tackles from both sides, resulting in Tema based referee CM Atsatsa expelling Louis Agyeman of Hearts from the game after a violent attack on Solomon Adjei. Hearts however, never showed any sign of numerical disadvantage after the exit of Agyeman and created some scoring chances but Lawrence Adjei who had only keeper Suleiman Abu to beat, fired wide to deny his side the leader in the 35th minute.
The crunchy nature of the game remained and it was imminent that any player from both sides stood the risk of taking an early shower. This manifested when Baba Musa of Power who had earlier received a yellow card was sent off in the 40th minute for a second bookable offence.
Hearts nearly benefited from this when Osei-Kuffour dummied the defence of Power but his shot was beautifully saved by keeper Abu to bring the first half to an end.
The second half witnessed more drama as both sides continued to express dissatisfaction at almost every decision of the referee, however it was Hearts who made serious attempts at scoring by taking the game to the half of their opponents.
Hearts earned a free kick in the in the 52nd minute in their search for the leader and Amankwah Mireku converted it to put his team on top once again.
The goal gingered the electricity boys and they turned the pressure on Hearts, subjecting the defence into an intensive pressure and rightly levelled up again through Mohammed Bello who pounced on a lose ball from a free kick and fired past Sammy Adjei in the 60th minute.
The game after this moment became very balanced with each side struggling to find the winner but Hearts seemed to be more aggressive as Power seemed to be satisfied with the game coming to a draw. As the game was heading towards its end, skipper Mireku's cross into the defence of Power FC created a melee and overlapping defender Acquah Harrison capitalised on it to score the match winner in the 82nd minute.
The goal created a lot of drama on the pitch when officials of Power FC protested vehemently against it with most of their officials storming the playing field to attack the referee.
The timely reaction of the security agencies made up of the Police and Military managed to bring the situation under control.
After sanity had prevailed, Power again took the fight to Hearts in search of another equaliser and nearly succeeded when Mike Annan's shot was scooped from the goal line by Adjah Tetteh to keep his sides lead intact.
With three minutes to the end of the game, Hearts had to play with nine men after Osei-Kuffour was sent off in the 87th minute. This forced Hearts to play under intense pressure especially in the dying minutes when the referee added four minutes of injury time.
At the El-Wak Sports Stadium in Accra, Confederation Cup campaigners, Accra Hearts of Oak on Wednesday managed to beat Power FC 3-2 in a crunchy premier league.
Power who used the stadium as their home ground conceded the first goal in the seventh minute when Hearts' Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour overpowered a defender of Power to deliver an overhead kick to put his side ahead.
The home team responded to the challenge as they took over the game and pinned Hearts to their own area in search of the equaliser. Power after the sustained pressure fetched the equaliser through Samuel Ocran in the 14th minute though a long-range shot after receiving a cross from a colleague.
The game from then on witnessed series of hard tackles from both sides, resulting in Tema based referee CM Atsatsa expelling Louis Agyeman of Hearts from the game after a violent attack on Solomon Adjei. Hearts however, never showed any sign of numerical disadvantage after the exit of Agyeman and created some scoring chances but Lawrence Adjei who had only keeper Suleiman Abu to beat, fired wide to deny his side the leader in the 35th minute.
The crunchy nature of the game remained and it was imminent that any player from both sides stood the risk of taking an early shower. This manifested when Baba Musa of Power who had earlier received a yellow card was sent off in the 40th minute for a second bookable offence.
Hearts nearly benefited from this when Osei-Kuffour dummied the defence of Power but his shot was beautifully saved by keeper Abu to bring the first half to an end.
The second half witnessed more drama as both sides continued to express dissatisfaction at almost every decision of the referee, however it was Hearts who made serious attempts at scoring by taking the game to the half of their opponents.
Hearts earned a free kick in the in the 52nd minute in their search for the leader and Amankwah Mireku converted it to put his team on top once again.
The goal gingered the electricity boys and they turned the pressure on Hearts, subjecting the defence into an intensive pressure and rightly levelled up again through Mohammed Bello who pounced on a lose ball from a free kick and fired past Sammy Adjei in the 60th minute.
The game after this moment became very balanced with each side struggling to find the winner but Hearts seemed to be more aggressive as Power seemed to be satisfied with the game coming to a draw. As the game was heading towards its end, skipper Mireku's cross into the defence of Power FC created a melee and overlapping defender Acquah Harrison capitalised on it to score the match winner in the 82nd minute.
The goal created a lot of drama on the pitch when officials of Power FC protested vehemently against it with most of their officials storming the playing field to attack the referee.
The timely reaction of the security agencies made up of the Police and Military managed to bring the situation under control.
After sanity had prevailed, Power again took the fight to Hearts in search of another equaliser and nearly succeeded when Mike Annan's shot was scooped from the goal line by Adjah Tetteh to keep his sides lead intact.
With three minutes to the end of the game, Hearts had to play with nine men after Osei-Kuffour was sent off in the 87th minute. This forced Hearts to play under intense pressure especially in the dying minutes when the referee added four minutes of injury time.
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