Thirty-seven months later, Ghana reset in Essipong
6 min read
Thirty-seven months without a win in Africa Cup of Nations qualifying ended for Ghana on Thursday night with a 2-0 result over Somalia in Essipong. It was not pretty, but it was decisive enough to stop a run that had stretched across three calendar years and two head coaches.
Adjei Adjetey, the Wolfsburg defender on his first international scoring mark, broke it open in first-half stoppage time. Felix Afena-Gyan, now based in Turkey, added a second on 62 minutes to bank the first points of the Group C campaign under acting head coach Kim Lars Bjorkegren after September defeats to Ivory Coast and The Gambia.
What ended the drought: Adjetey’s header, Afena‑Gyan’s clincher, Ayew’s miss
Ghana’s goals came from set-piece nous and persistence — and, truthfully, from Somalia’s errors. Adjetey attacked a corner and punished fragile aerial defending to make it 1-0 in first-half added time. Afena-Gyan’s strike after the break should have been a routine stop, but goalkeeper Ibrahim Hussein let a relatively weak effort slip underneath him.
That made Jordan Ayew’s earlier penalty miss — a poorly struck kick saved by Hussein — a footnote rather than a turning point. For a Somali side ranked 200th in the world, 130 places behind Ghana, the lapses confirmed where the gap remains. For the Black Stars, after two opening losses in Group C, it was exactly the sort of low-friction win a team in need of momentum requires.
Group C after Thursday, and a quirk of venue
Ivory Coast’s 2-1 win over The Gambia in Bouaké kept the defending champions perfect on nine points. The Gambia sit on six, Ghana on three, Somalia on zero — a table that matches the early narratives: one clear leader, one chaser, and the Black Stars needing a streak to make March matter.
They will not need to travel to start that. Somalia have ceded home advantage, so Monday’s return fixture is also in Ghana. A follow-up win, the report notes, would put the Black Stars in a stronger position before the group’s decisive window next March against Ivory Coast and The Gambia.
| Team | Points |
|---|---|
| Ivory Coast | 9 |
| The Gambia | 6 |
| Ghana | 3 |
| Somalia | 0 |
The bench changes too: Queiroz out, Bjorkegren in
The win landed on the first night of a new interim. Kim Lars Bjorkegren was appointed to lead the Black Stars after the departure of Carlos Queiroz, and his debut assignment yielded three points and a restart. “I will do my best to help Ghana qualify for AFCON 2027,” he said after the match, framing his remit in clear, short-term terms.
Pressed on whether he is the right long-term choice, the Swede stayed in the lane an interim should. “It’s not a question for me; I’m going to do my best when I’m here… to be there for the boys, and do my absolute best to win every game and to help the boys back in this group,” he said, according to Footballghana. It reads like a reset note: less about tenure, more about points.
From the archive: droughts, jolts and the next test
Ghana’s reputation as four-time African champions lives in tension with the reality of qualifying cycles that can stall and jolt. A 37-month run without a win in AFCON qualifying is a stark measure of that drift — and of how much an uncomplicated victory can matter when the calendar doesn’t allow for slow starts.
This particular reset is bookended by those September defeats to Ivory Coast and The Gambia and by the coaching handover from Queiroz. The November window brings the unusual boon of a back-to-back against the same opponent in the same country; March brings the heavyweights. The gap between those tranches — and what Ghana can bank in it — will define whether this becomes a mere reprieve or the start of a real course correction.
The detail
Two windows, one swing: how the calendar shapes Group C
The November window hands Ghana a rare chance to consolidate, and the schedule explains why. The Black Stars opened with back-to-back defeats two months ago, then drew a home-and-home with Somalia across four days — except Somalia ceded home advantage, keeping both games on Ghanaian soil. The report underscores the opportunity: “A second victory would put the Black Stars in a stronger position ahead of their final two matches against Ivory Coast and The Gambia next March.” That sentence captures CAF qualifying’s ruthless design. You cannot play your way into form against the strongest sides if you have not already banked points against the developing teams in the group. By March the runway shortens and the margin for error narrows with Ivory Coast perfect on nine and The Gambia already at six. In practical terms, Monday is not just a repeat fixture; it is the hinge the entire Ghana campaign swings on before the heavyweight rematches arrive.
Elsewhere on Thursday: why margins travel across groups
The same night, Equatorial Guinea and Zimbabwe drew 0-0 in Yaoundé, their campaign shaped by a goalkeeper’s absence and a defensive game-plan. Marcos Ondo stepped in for 47-cap Jesús Owono, who is yet to decide on his career following a tragic collision in Spain earlier this month, and had little to do as Zimbabwe largely sat in. Both teams now have four points, five behind DR Congo, who beat Sierra Leone 3-1 in Kinshasa with Yoane Wissa opening the scoring inside four minutes.
Senegal, meanwhile, hammered Sudan 4-1 in Dakar, building on an opening goal from Aston Villa’s Nicolas Jackson and rolling through the second half. Their last AFCON title is disputed — CAF stripped Senegal of the crown and declared Morocco champions after a walk-off protest around a penalty, a ruling now on appeal to CAS with a verdict due this month — and their response was an emphatic group-stage statement. The wider moral for Ghana is not about transposing another group’s story, but about understanding how swiftly a campaign can harden if you let the first window dictate the rest.
What Monday means back in Essipong
The ledger is simple. Ivory Coast lead on nine, The Gambia are on six, Ghana are on three, Somalia are on none. Another win over Somalia — again in Ghana after the East Africans ceded home advantage — keeps the Black Stars within reach of the March games that will decide whether this becomes a chase or a fade.
Bjorkegren’s own framing remains pointed: do the job in front of you, and let the bigger decisions wait. For a side that has spent 37 months waiting for a qualifier to go their way, Thursday’s win was a start. Monday is the chance to prove it was also a pivot.
Sources: Nigeria/Cote d'Ivoire: Ghana End 37-Month Afcon Qualifying Winless Run – Ivory Coast, Senegal Win (allafrica.com); I will do my best to help Ghana qualify for AFCON 2027 â Kim Lars Bjorkegren (footballghana.com)
Images: Cover: Jake Brown / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)
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