Hearts crush South African Under-20 side

Accra, June 1, GNA – Premier League leaders Accra Hearts of Oak crushed the national under-20 side of South Africa, the Amajita by four goals to nil in an international friendly match at the Ohene Djan Stadium in Accra on Monday.

The South Africans who came into the game with high hopes, after they had defeated their Ghanaian counterparts, the Black Satellites, 5-3 in their first friendly game on Saturday, started on a positive note by making several attempts at goal, but they were not able to make use of the chances that came their way.

The most glaring opportunities came in the 11th and 17th minutes, through the paths of Mzuvele Skhosana and Semeeny Doutie but they could not find the right direction into the goal post.

The Amajita lads however never relented in their efforts to find the lead and created another perfect opportunity in the 24th minute with Mandla Masanga having only keeper Quartey at his mercy, but the youngster was unable to make the needed conversion.

Hearts on the other hand also created some decent chances that could have placed them ahead of the South Africans, before the close of the first half but Samuel Affum was just not up to the task as he blew away begging scoring chances, whilst Eric Gawu could equally be blamed for poor finishing.

It was a game that any of the sides could have taken at least a two goal lead before the close of the half, but had to pay the price for poor finishing to leave the first half barren.

Hearts made sure they took the lead five minutes into the second half, through Affum, who was on hand at the right time to convert a perfect cross laid on his path by Gawu.

The duo made regular and consistent attacks in the opponent's area and succeeded in increasing the tally in the 78th minute, through the solo efforts of Gawu.

Gawu, who picked a pass from midfield raced through the South African defence, who seemed to have no solution to the strikers speed and footwork as he went ahead to raise the ball over the advancing Amajita keeper for the second goal.

Even though both sides made changes to the starting line up at this stage, it was Hearts who benefited from the presence of young Tawrick Jibrile and Elvis Acheampong in midfield as they created a lot of trouble for the South African defence, but their effort did not fetch them immediate goal.

Determined to increase their goal tally, an overlapping Tetteh Nortey combined effectively with defender Mohammed Hassan in the 81st minute, which saw the later being presented with a clear opportunity for which he made no mistake by slotting the ball into the net for the third goal.

As the game was progressing to an end, Gawu again intercepted a pass from Acheampong to score the fourth goal, which eventually became the last goal for the Phobians on a happy day.

GNA