Satellites must beat Mali to be safe Ghana edged closer to the U-20 World Cup after beating Mali 2-0 in their Group A encounter at the African Youth Championship on Wednesday.
The Black Satellites won the game thanks to goals from Awako Gladson and Ransford Osei in a keenly contested game in Kigali.
The Ghanaians opened the scoring on 17 minutes when Dominic Adiyiah sent in an inch-perfect cross for Awako to head home.
The Malians, who were very physical, raised their game in the second-half but they were undone by Osei who chanced on a mistake by goalkeeper Ballo Sheikh Oumar to put the game beyond doubt.
The victory leaves the Satellites on four points after two matches following their 1-1 draw with Cameroon in the opening game on Sunday.
Ghana will need one point for their final game against hosts Rwanda to qualify for the U-20 World Cup in Egypt later this year.
The Malians are out of the tournament as they lost their opening group game to Rwanda after going down 2-1 on Sunday.
But the Satellites are fortunate as they did not live up to expectation following their impressive showing against Cameroon.
Captain Andre Dede Ayew, the star of the team and son of legend Abedi Pele, suffered most at the hands of the brutal Mali defenders.
The France-based midfielder showed flashes of his brilliance but he suffered serious knocks during the game which inhibited the side from flourishing.
Despite the setback Ayew was able some decent chances for some of his team-mates yet the strikers were profligate.
Adiyiah and Abeiku Quansah were the main culprits but their inefficiency was equally matched by Mali striker Yacouba Diarra who shot wide with only goalkeeper Daniel Agyei to beat atfer making light work of defender Phillip Boampong.
Agyei was equal to the task moments later when Malamine Mariko fired from 30-yards.
Ghana will play Rwanda in their final group game hoping to at least grab a point to be guaranteed of a World Cup place.
Ghana line-up:
1 AGYEI DANIEL, 2 INKOOM SAMUEL, 3 AWAKO GLADSON, 5 ADDO DANIEL, 6 ADDY DAVID, 8 AGYEMANG EMMANUEL BADU, 10 AYEW ANDRE DEDE, 11 ADIYIAH DOMINIC, 15 BOAMPONG PHILLIP, 17 QUANSAH ABEIKU, 18 OSEI RANSFORD
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