Kotoko 5 Olympics 3

Kumasi Asante Kotoko on Sunday defeated Accra Great Olympics 5-3 in the last match of the Onetouch Premier League match played at the Nkawkaw Park.

The Porcupine Warriors have thus qualified to play in the next year's Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) Cup. All the three goals of Olympics were scored by inside left Emmanuel Clottey to record a hat-trick to propel him to win this year's Goal King Race.

Kotoko took the kick-off and their attackers led by veteran skipper, Emmanuel Osei Kuffour supported by Douglas Nkrumah and Ofosu Amoah (Tico-Tico), pressurized the Olympics defence in search of an early goal but their efforts were ably foiled.

They however got the opener in the 21st minute through inside left Nkrumah whose cheeky shot beat Oly's keeper Ibrahim Salifu. Kotoko continued to pile up pressure in search of more goals and got the second goal in the 31st minute again through Nkrumah when he scored from an Osei Kuffour's rebound shot.

Olympics from then dominated play but wasted a corner-kick in the 37th minute but after Iddrisu Sumaiala came in for inside right Edward Sosu they managed to score in the 40th minute through Emmanuel Clottey in a defensive blunder by the Kotoko defence.

Kotoko made it 3-1 in the injury time of the first half when substitute Francis Akwafu's right-footed shot in the Oly's box beat keeper Salifu.

Oly again brought on Alex Agyepong for keeper Salifu in the second half and got their second goal in the 46th minute through Alex Quartey when he beat a host of Kotoko defenders on a solo move before placing the ball at the blind side of the Kotoko keeper.

Both teams resorted to rough play that compelled Accra-based FIFA Referee Mercy Tagoe to show four yellow cards to Kotoko players and three cards to Olympics players to stamp her authority on the game. In the 53rd minute, Kotoko made it 4-2 when Osei Kuffour scored from a John Cudjoe's pass.

Kotoko continued to dominate play and scored their fifth goal in the 73rd minute when Ofosu Amoah beat three Oly defenders before releasing a powerful shot to beat substitute keeper Agyepong. When everything seemed to be heading to an end, Oly's main goal scorer, Clottey scored his third goal in the 76th minute through a defensive blunder to end proceedings.