Former midfielder, Michael Essien has revealed that his audacious free-kick goal against Morocco at CAN 2008, which was assisted by Sulley Muntari, wasn’t rehearsed at the training ground.
The former Chelsea middleman combined with Muntari to score one of the goals of the tournament, with the latter lifting a pin-point free-kick in behind the Moroccan defence for the former to score.
Fourteen years on, Essien, who also played for Real Madrid and AC Milan has revealed that the free-kick sequence that led to the goal wasn’t practised on the training ground.
“We never practised this free-kick. It was just an instinct eye contact on the pitch,” he wrote on Twitter, accompanied by a video of the said goal.
The Black Stars topped Group A when Ghana hosted the Africa Cup of Nations in 2008, after winning all their matches against Guinea, Namibia and Morocco.
Claude Le Roy’s side then defeated Nigeria in the quarter-finals but fell at the hands of Cameroon in the last four.
Ghana, however, picked themselves up to beat the Ivory Coast 4-2 in the third/fourth playoff match to finish the tournament as bronze winners.
Despite failing to win the tournament, the Black Stars’ midfield emerged as one of the best, having dominated every game.
Source: Modern Ghana
