Ghana failed to secure a ticket to the FIFA U20 World Cup for the fourth consecutive time after suffering a quarter-final stage elimination from the 2025 Africa U20 Cup of Nations by host country, Egypt.
The Black Satellites suffered a 5-4 defeat on penalty shootouts to the Young Pharaohs of Egypt in the all-important fixture of the ongoing tournament at the Suez Stadium after the entire duration of the game had ended in a 2-2 stalemate.
Coach Desmond Ofei made a change in his team that secured a narrow victory over the Central African Republic in the Group C fixture as Jerry Afriyie was handed a starting berth, leaving Abdul Hakim Sulemana on the bench.
The Black Satellites enjoyed the majority of the possession in the early minutes of the game but they got punished by the Egyptians with two defensive errors in the first 30 minutes of the game.
Two-goal hero Moamen Sherif Abdalla brilliantly opened the scoring for the Egypt U20 team when he capitalized on a defensive blunder of Ofori McCarthy and goalkeeper Gidios Aseako in the 19th minute of the game.
Seven minutes later, Sherif Abdalla doubled their lead with another defensive error from the Ghanaian backline to keep the Egyptian fans joyous before the half-hour mark.
The Black Satellites continued their impressive display after going down with two goals with some fearsome attacks which helped them to pull one back on the stroke of halftime.
FC Barcelona winger Abdul Aziz Issah registered his name on the score sheet with a powerful drive to end the first half in a 2-1 to keep Ghana on a lifeline.
In the second half, Desmond Ofei introduced Abdul Hakim Sulemana, Andrews Adjabeng, and Aziz Musibau as replacements for Hayford Adu Boahen, Jerry Afriyie, and Emmanuel Mensah respectively.
The introduction of the trio aided the Black Satellites upfront to unleash pressure on the Egyptians but goalkeeper Abdelmonem Tamer was indeed the saviour of the host nation.
Tamer made a magnificent difference with his saves to deny Aziz Issah, Aziz Musibau and Joseph Opoku from scoring for the Black Satellites.
Ghana had the breakthrough with a 90+7 minute penalty which was superbly converted by Randers FC forward Abdul Hakim Sulemana to send the quarter-final fixture into extra-time.
The Penalty shootout myth of Ghana continues
Ghana played over twenty minutes of the time with ten men after Aaron Essel was sent off after picking the second yellow card in the 107th minute of the game.
No goal was produced in the extra-time of the crunchy fixture, forcing it into a penalty shootout which the Egypt U20 secured a qualification to the semi-final by a 5-4 win on penalties.
Following the defeat, Ghana missed out on the FIFA U20 World Cup for the fourth consecutive time after making its last appearance at the 2015 edition which was played in New Zealand.
The 2025 FIFA U20 World Cup will be staged in Chile from 27th September to 19th October 2025.
