Osman Bukari Matches Draman Record : Red Star Belgrade winger Osman Bukari equalled the long-standing record of Haminu Draman as Portugal and Ghana sold out a thrilling World Cup match on Thursday evening at the Stadium 974 in Doha during the first round of matches in Group H.
Bukari became the only second Black Stars player to score in his first match at the FIFA World Cup finals after heading home Ghana’s second goal against The Selection of Fernando Santos. The Red Star Belgrade forward provided an instant impact for the team of Otto Addo as he rose at the far post to connect a deflected cross from Baba Rahman.
The first Ghana player to achieve such feat was Haminu Draman who scored against USA in Germany 2006 in Black Stars’ 2-0 victory over the Americans in Nuremberg. The USA match was Haminu’s first ever appearance at the tournament as he was not used in the games against Italy and Czech Republic.
Asamoah Gyan , leading scorer of both Ghana and Africa at the World Cup tournament , was not fortunate to score in Ghana’s maiden World Cup match against Italy in 2006 as the Europeans defeated debutants Ghana by 2-0.
Four other Ghanaian players have scored at least a goal at the World Cup but none of them did so in their first match played. They are Sulley Muntari , Andre Ayew , Stephen Appiah and Kevin-Prince Boateng.
Ayew took his World Cup tally to three goals with his 73rd minute equalizer against the Portuguese who eventually won the five-goal thriller.
The match was however not without controversy after Moroccan-born American soccer referee Ismail Elfath awarded Cristiano Ronaldo a controversial penalty and refused to review his decision via the Video Assistant Referee.
Ghana now take on South Korea on November 28th whilst Portugal play against Uruguay on the same day during the second round of group games.
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