Accra Hearts of Oak proved once more their acclaimed mastery over their virulent rivals, Asante Kotoko by inflicting on them a very agonizing 2-1 defeat at the Accra sports stadium on Friday to the clinch their fifth President’s Cup title.
A second half 50th minute strike from Daniel Afriyie Barnieh lighted up the Accra sports stadium for the already vociferous fans of the ‘Phobians’ before susbstitute Patrick Razak killed off the game with 88th minute winner after Asante Kotoko’s Samuel Boateng had climbed off the bench to captalise on defender Robert Addo Sowah’s mistake to restore parity for the Porcupine Warriors in the 75th minute.
The first half of the game produced no goals from the two sides, but the second half of the game proved much more competitive with an absolute dramatic ending. Following Hearts of Oak’s 50th minute lead through Barnieh, Asante Kotoko got back on the level on the 75th minute after substitute Samuel Boateng gripped on a mistake from Robert Addo Sowah to shoot on a goal before his effort deflected the body of Mohammed Alhassan to beat goalkeeper Richard Atta into the net.
Razak snached the winner for Samuel Boadu’s side in the latter stages of the game when he received a tailor measured pass in the opponent’s half just behind the centre line (on-side) before making a great surging run to go round goalkeeper Danlad Ibrahim for a superb finish.
It ended 2-1 for Accra Hearts of Oak and they have now lifted their fifth title of the President’s Cup competition as opposed to Asante Kotoko’s eight (8).
