Battle of the Stars as South Sudan take on Ghana for African Cup glory

Both teams booked their place in the decider after convincing semi-finals wins last Saturday. 

The Bright Stars came from behind to thrash Cape Verde 5-1. A hat-trick from Ngor Deng in the space of 10 minutes late in the first half set them on their way after Cape Verde surprisingly took the lead.

Agar Mawan and Sunday Yona netted in the second half to round out a comprehensive win for the Bright Stars who have scored 25 goals in the tournament in five games. 

Deng was quite simply superb and scored from three well taken chances after Cape Verde had bravely withstood wave after wave of relentless attacks from the Bright Stars.

The South Sudanese, who have under-achieved for a number of years in the tournament despite often having the most talented squad, will be looking to silence the critics next weekend and will go into the final as raging hot favourites.

They will come up against Ghana who beat 2018 champions DR Congo 4-2. Lord Darkoh, David Adjassou, Freddie Sey and Josh Obeng all netted for the Black Stars. DR Congo had no answer to the speedy Ghanaians who moved the ball quickly and caught their opponents on the backfoot throughout the game. 

Ghana will be hard to beat after piling on 20 goals in their last four games, despite losing 4-0 in their tournament opener to Cape Verde. 

Meanwhile Zimbabwe’s women had a resounding 7-3 win over DR Congo in the first leg of the Women’s Challenge Cup on Saturday  afternoon. The Zimbabweans outclassed their opponents playing direct and fast moving football.

The second leg will take place at 2pm next Saturday, before the men’s final which kicks off at 5pm. The third place game between DR Congo and Cape Verde is at 11am.