World Cup 2014 Portugal vs Ghana: Latest news updates, score and result, with our live stream match report of the Group G game at Estadio Nacional, Brasilia on Thursday June 26, 2014, kick-off 17.00 (BST)
All thoughts on World Cup 2014 and whether you’d like to see Cristiano Ronaldo in the knockout stage to rob.bagchi@telegraph.co.uk please
19.05 We will find out from 9pm who the round of 16 opponents for Germany and USA will be. Please join me for South Korea v Belgium and Tyers for Algeria v Russia. We’ll be bidding farewell to the group phase from 8pm. Thanks for your company.
19.00 Group G finishes with Germany top, USA second, Portugal third, three goals worse off than the US, and Ghana fourth. Cristiano Ronaldo had the chances to make up their goals deficit but he clearly isn’t fully fit and can’t be blamed.
Full time They’re off home, the pair of them. The 21 Ghana plyers left in Brazil joining the exiled two, Portugal knocked out by the thrashing they masochistically allowed Germany to inflict on them.
90+5 min Last kick of the game is Moutinho’s shot from 30m that is still on its upward curve into the stands as we speak.
90+4 min Free-kick fro Ghana after Moutinho’s nasty, spiteful stamping tackle on Gyan. It’s 20m out on the left. Gyan whips it over the bar.
90+3 min Ronaldo has yet another chance, breaking through the middle and on to the pass 15m from goal, smacking it low and Dauda saves it with his feet.
90+1 min There will be four minutes of added time for this homeward bound teams. Nani has his moment of the match, spinning a cross to te near-post run of Ronaldo. He meets it three feet high and rising off the ground and tries to flick it with his left foot past Dauda, knocking it over, but only just.
90 min Afriye makes a lovely pass up the left for Jordan Ayew who can’t get past Pepe and is outmuscled.
89 min Beto has to go off, shouting his defiance and gesticulating at the physio who made the decision. Eduardo comes on.
87 min Nani races down the left, hesitates depriving Moutinho of some valuable time to receive the pass and turn and the move breaks down when Moutinho has to hurry and spoons it wide of Ronaldo’s run.
85 min Beto has hurt his ribs and is signalling to the bench. They have one substitute left. But there is no break in play.
84 min The fatigue fogs the mind of Gyan who has the opportunity from 40m out to thread a pass through to Jordan Ayew’s run into the box but tonks it down the wrong channel.
83 min Varela has a shot inside the box across goal. Everyone’s knackered and the chances are coming.
82 min Now Ronaldo spurns a chance to make it three, latching on to a bouncing ball on the left of the box and mishitting it as Afful lunged in.
81 min What an introduction by the sub Wakaso who storms through the middle and spanks a shot a few feet wide.
GOAL!! Portugal 2-1 Ghana (Ronaldo) A gift. Cross comes in from Nani on the left, Mensah on the goalline gets under it so Dauda pushes it up like a volleyball spike and it drops to Ronaldo about 10m out and he lashes it home with a swing of the left foot. That was dreadful defending.
79 min Vierinha is almost frightened out of possession by the close attentions of Badu.
78 min Cravalho pulls Jordan Ayew’s shorts up, exposing his jock-strap, Ayew throws his arms about like a windmill to get William off his back and catches him in the face. A booking follows for Ayew who almost involuntarily had his tackle out.
77 min Afriye comes on for Ghana, replacing Rabiu.
76 min Header from the edge of the box high and wide for Ghana from Jordan Ayew’s right-wing cross. I think it was Gyan.
74 min Jordan Ayew is on for Waris.
73 min Why are teams so rubbish at corners when we know that every team at the World Cup cannot defend? Why oh why oh why?
72 min Ronaldo looks for a penalty, rolling on the ground clutching his knee, when Mensah shoulders him over as he raced on to a through ball. The referee gives a corner. Anywhere else on the pitch, as Martin Keown says …
70 min Ronaldo wriggles free on the left and samshes a cross from the dead ball line with his right foot across goal byt there was no one there to head it and if there had been it may have decapitated them, too.
69 min Eder goes off, Vierinha comes on.
68 min Good work from Carvalho stops Atsu’s progress on the left of midfield, just inside the Ghana half. He finds Varela who barrels forward for 10m then lets fly with power but not the accuarcy.
66 min Atsu crosses into the box, but it’s headed away to the edge of the area where Kwadwo Asamoah shoots low and wide. There were three Ghana players in the box who could have tried to re-direct it, but they were all offside.
65 min Gyan is stretching the defence by haring down the flanks, winning a free-kick by the corner flag for a push in the back.
Shehryar Khan is the voice of reason
Mark, you dont want to make this a Ronaldo-Messi fight. Trust me.There will be carnage on both sides. So its better if we agree that, yes, Ronaldo is amazing. And so is Messi.
You forgot to add “And neither is as good as Ian Baird”.
63 min Amorim takes over at full-back. Ronaldo drops back to the centre-circle to get the ball, dribbles forward then tries to lay it off to Nani but Ghana intercept and break, the move ruined by a poor release pass.
62 min Varela comes on for Pereira.
61 min What a miss from Waris at the far post, this time Gyan the provider, facing up Pereira and then curling a right foot cross low to the back post. Waris stoops then dives to meet it, but he’s no Keith Houchen.
59 min Free-kick for Ghana that’s mishit from 30m, over all the massed ranks in the box and straight into touch.
57 min Coverage was interrupted to show Germany’s goal, they’ve gone 1-0 up with Thomas Muller scoring, and then jagged back just to show Kwadwo’s wonder cross and Gyan’s neat finish. Game on.
GOAL!! Portugal 1-1 Ghana (Gyan) Made by the other Asamoah, crossed with the outside of his left foot across the box, and Gyan nodded it in at the far post. Brilliant cross.
52 min Moutinho again is the orchestrator, playing the ball up the middle to Ronaldo via Nani. Ghana get out quickly to smother it.
Mark Subryan has fighting talk for a previous correspondent.
What colour is the sky on Elisabeth De Sousa’s planet? Ronaldo is not “by far the best player in the world”. Winning 1 Ballon D’Or does not make you the best by far. There is one who is still better and he is proving that in this World Cup with 4 goals.
One of them was an own goal, Mark. Any road, is there any point having this discussion.
50 min Gyan cuts in from the left on to his right foot and shoots from the edge of the box, low and a few centimetres past Beto’s right post. Atsu was screaming for the pass but Gyan ignored him.
49 min Mistake by Mensah almost allows Ronaldo space to shoot but only if Carvalho had found him.
48 min Terrific pass down the inside left from Moutinho finds Amorim’s run and he cuts it back to Nani at the edge of the box, left of centre. He shoots first time, but the ball is deflected over the bar.
47 min Pepe does what Pepe always does, clatters through the back of Gyan and looks up to suggest the referee vmust be crackers to penalise him.
46 min Portugal play it back to Beto who knocks it long to Nani up the right. He gives it back to Pereira who passes to Amorim who loses it.
Kiran Kulkarni fears Portugal will be kicking themselves
Bebe was in form and scoring goals from all over the pitch, should Portugal have gambled? Ronaldo has struggled in the tournament. He is struggling with tendinitis of the knee – the pain evident on his face while playing. Hugo Almeida, Helder Postiga and Eder are not world-class strikers while Nani looks a shade of the talent he could actually be. But in the past few months Bebe has finally shown what Carlos Quieroz must have first seen in him – raw talent. He scored a sensational 11 goals in the last 16 games of the season whilst on loan with Pacos Ferreira.
Will Portuguese regret?
About Bebe? Probaly not, Kiran.
18.00 Heated debate begins here, thanks to Robin Hall:
Whilst I agree with Elisabeth De Sousa what’s the point in seeing him play further surrounded by this dross.
Moutinho, Robin, Joao Moutinho.
The half-time show on the BBC’s red button service is immense, it’s the two flags of the teams, plus some percussion and Hammond organ heavy grooves. Here are some brass fills now. Pah, pah, paaaaaaaaah!
Elisabeth De Sousa never can say goodbye
I would love to see Ronaldo on the knockout stage. He is a wonderful player. He may not be playing in the best team this world cup, but he is by far the best player in the world. It will be sad to not see him play further.
Half time With USA vs Germany 0-0, the two teams in Recife are currently going through.
45 min You would think that Boye, having come a cropper with an unorthodox attempted clearance, would be less inclined to do it again. Instead he goes flying up, feet first again, to slice it over the bar from Nani’s cross/shot.
44 min Wasteful, floaty, selfish shot from Nani, taking it 20m from goal and, with Ronaldo sprinting into the box, giving the crowd some heading practice.
42 min Indulgent touch from Nani on the edge of the box, trying a backheel that sparks a Ghana counter-attack, the ball played up to Asamoah Gyan quickly with his back to goal in the box. Alves has his arms on Gyan’s arms as the striker uses his backside to try to find some room by backing into him and then falls to the floor, claiming a penalty. The referee signals his bemusement, telling him to get up.
40 min Shot from Atsu across goal from the left inspires shrieks from the crowd, but it threatened the corner flag more than the goal.
38 min Asamoah does three step-overs to try to mesmerise Nani on the left, 25m from goal, but to Nani’s credit, he is not buying it, watches the ball diligently, then turns his aris in to shove Asamoah out of the way.
36 min Gyan has a sniff of goal, having pulled away at the back post when the ball comes in from the right, but he can’t do his run justice.
34 min Amorim has a golden opportunity from a clever run into the box on the left of the penalty area, wriggling free of Afful and down the side of Boye, but thrashes his shot into the side netting.
32 min Ronaldo has a chance to make it two, shooting low but too straight from the left of the box and Dauda easily drops to block it.
GOAL!! Portugal 1-0 Ghana (Boye og) Chalk up an assist for the referee for blocking the pass to Atsu which changed the momentum, gave possession back to Portugal in front of their back four. They play it out to Veloso on the left and his cross spun and dipped, Boye launching himslef up to try and scissor kick it away with a volley, mistiming terribly and shanking it behind him off his knee and over the head of his keeper, on to the bar and in.
29 min Corner for Ghana, wasted, but the harry Portugal, making them rush their passes in their own box until Beto puts his foot through it. Veloso goes wandering up the left and again ends the move with a bad pass and Ghana break, Ayew almost threading it through to Gyan but the referee gets in the way.
27 min Ronaldo is patently struggling, he has a clear run down the middle and although still mercurially quick, he doesn’t seem to have the stamina to keep going so lays it off to the left where Veloso messes up the move with a weak cross.
26 min Nani crosses with his left-foot as Pepe made a run into the box, but as Bonita feared he might, he completely horsed it up. The two No8s come together, Badu and Moutinho, the latter coming off the worst.
25 min Ghana are starting to exert more and more influence.
23 min Ghana free-kick on the right curled in left-footed by Asamoah to the back post but the header from Gyan is weak and caught by Beto. Give Pepe the benefit of stopping Gyan really getting the momentum into his leap.
20 min Moutinho, a wonderful player, succumbs to Steven Gerrard disease, hitting a death or glory Hail Mary pass that skips out of play.
Bonita asks
Isn’t it about time Nani got into the game?
Specifically this game or his entire career, Bonita?
18 min Dauda is jumping up and dpown, slapping himself on the back after batting away Ronaldo’s header as he fell backwards. The cross was superb from the right by Pereira, bypassing the centre-backs and finding Ronaldo at the back stick. His leap, as ever, was perfectly timed and the keeper had to react quickly to pat it away.
17 min Veloso and Amorim and Eder link up in a left-sided traingle, but the supposed killer ball from Amorim sends Eder too far wide and too deep into the box so he can only stab it across goal.
15 min Good cross into the box from Waris who had broken out to the right touchline on to Afful’s pass. he plays it to Gyan’s feet who takes it on the half turn but when he swivels further around to try to get his shot away, Alves blocks strongly and kicks it away.
14 min Ronaldo is playing straight down the middle whenever Afful goes forward up the right. Pereira again tries to find him with a Wimbledonesque mixer ball that flies 60m and about 10m too far.
12 min Ronaldo strikes the free-kick at that unique and odd angle, bringing his laces down almost on top of the ball. Up it goes over the wall and towards Dauda’s left post, but the keeper tracks over to his left quickly and bats it away.
11 min Asamoah kicks Moutinho as the two challenge for a bouncing ball. He clutches his knee in agony and limps off after a break. Portugal free-kick, 25m out on the right.
9 min Sliding tackle from Moutinho clears out Badu, upending him, but he isn’t booked. Dauda races out as Portugal break, taking it on his chest after Ghana waste their free-kick and beats Eder to the ball, clearing long.
7 min It’s all Portugal, Ghana unable to string two passes together, Moutinho breaking up play in the middle, passing to Carvalho and knocking it 20m up to Amorim whose pass into the box to Eder is read by Asamoah and snapped up.
5 min Pereira has a trot up the right wing, passes to Nani but it’s cut out, played in to Waris who loses it with a heavy touch, Carvalho sweeping up and finding Ronaldo who has drifted out by the right touchline and he tries an outrageous chip from the wide right over the keeper that looks dangerous but kisses the bar and shapes away from goal and back into play.
4 min Nani has a chance of a cross on the right, a tight chance given how quickly Asamoah is out to him and Badu dropping back too. He can’t thread it through the gap, rebounding it off the defender and the ball bobbles harmlessly away from the box.
3 min Afful knocks the ball over the top, hooking a volleyed pass up the middle but Bruno Alves reads it and nods it back to the keeper.
2 min Veloso is filling in at left-back, which might mean Pepe being drawn out to help more than he would like.
1 min We’re off, long ball from Pereira, almost 80m looking for Ronaldo, a raking diagonal over the heads of the Ghana defence and out of play.
16.59 Ghana are two goals behind USA, Portugal five goals.
16.57 I’m not a fan of the superfluous horizontal stripes on the Portugal shirts.
16.55 Pictures! We’ve missed the Portuguese national anthem. The anti-Portugal conspiracy at the BBC must be addressed.
16.53 The build-up has been fraught with technical issues, but really, what’s the point of bidding for broadcast rights and then not being able to accommodate them. Fancy keeping two TV channels off air till 7pm.
16.52 The teams are in the tunnel, I’m hearing on the radio.
16.44 Why isn’t this match on BBC3? It’s on the red button or the website, but instead of opening up the much-loved third channel a couple of hours early to show this important game, the BBC decides to stick tennis on Two and keep Three closed down. It’s time to face the music, it’s time to light the lights, it’s time to get things started, on the Muppet Show tonight. Thanks for that.
16.25 We’ve heard a lot over the past few months about Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo needing to have stellar World Cups to secure their reputations. Here are some of those contenders for ‘best player of their time’ over the past decades, who did not need perforamnces at World Cups to secure their legacies: Alfredo Di Stefano, Lev Yashin, Denis Law, George Best, Kevin Keegan, Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, George Weah.
16.14 The teams are here
Portugal (4-3-3): Beto; Pereia, Pepe, Amorim; Veloso, Carvalho, Moutinho; Nani, Eder, Ronaldo.
Ghana (Possible, 4-2-3-1): Dauda; Afful, Mensah, Boye, Asamoah; Rabiu, Badu; Atsu, Waris, A Ayew; Gyan.
Referee Nawaf Shukralla (Bahrain)
16.09 Night-long storms in Recife may delay the match between West Germany and Austria USA and Germany, but the weather is fine in Brasilia for our game. There is the odd Real Madrid fan (odd being the mot juste) saying that Cristiano Ronaldo needs a break so they hope Portugal go out, but it’s generally a case of a nation turns its lonely eyes to you for the Madeira marvel.
16.04 No official team news yet but social media suggests that Pepe has been recalled at the heart of the Portuguese defence. Hmmm.
15.53 The other side of the story comes from Kevin-Prince Boateng’s interview with Bild.
No one should think that I insulted the coach or did anything wrong. Yesterday, there was an incident during training. Sulley Muntari and I had joked over a duel. I said that he had handled the ball. He said ‘no’. Then I laughed and said: ‘Hey, you’re the referee or what?’ Then we both laughed. The coach stopped the training and asked why we were laughing? We said that everything was OK. He then sent me to the changing room.
After training I went to the coach and asked him if he had a minute for me. I asked him what he had against me? Then he started yelling at me. He insulted me.”
15.44 When he was German, Boateng was suspended from the Under-21s for almost two years after breaking a curfew and retired from international football with Ghana from 2011-2013. How do you spell Boateng? T-R-O-U-B-L-E. Speaking of which …
15.35 Here is the full story of the week’s sordid events.
Ghana midfielders Sulley Muntari and Kevin-Prince Boateng have been suspended indefinitely from the national team and sent home from the World Cup in Brazil for disciplinary reasons, the Ghana Football Association has announced.
The association claims that the decision to suspend Muntari “was taken in the wake of his unprovoked physical attack on an executive committee member of the GFA and a management member of the Black Stars, Mr Moses Armah on Tuesday 24th June, 2014 during a meeting.”
In separate statements on their website the Ghana FA said the decision to suspend Boateng was “taken following Boateng’s vulgar verbal insults targeted at coach Kwesi Appiah during the team’s training session in Maceio this week. Boateng has since showed no remorse for his actions which has resulted in the decision.”
Ghana’s preparations for Thursday’s vital Group G game against Portugal were overshadowed by a bonus row within the squad which led to Ghana’s government being been forced to fly $3 million (£1.8m) in cash to Brazil to pay appearance fees owed to the players and avert a potential boycott.
The Ghanaian FA even asked Fifa for an advance on the $8 million prize money guaranteed from the World Cup to pay outstanding debts to players.
15.30 Good afternoon. A very low-key day. Nothing much to report apart from World War III breaking out in the Ghana camp – the threat of strikes, cash flown in bundled up in green-back wedges the size of breezeblocks, punch-ups and expulsions. Just your everyday occurrence at the World Cup where some African nations are concerned, preposterously miserly and shambolic administrators provoking chaos and discord that is likely to undermine all the hard work. The way Ghana took on Germany, giving them a fright with their application, directness and flair, all rendered redundant by incompetence and, allegedly, venality. It makes some people want to weep, others to knock some heads together.
12 noon So here we are then.
Can Cristiano Ronaldo, the best player in the world (according to the latest Ballon d’Or inscription) reach the World Cup knockout stage?
Can Ghana, so impressive against Germany, ensure he goes on his summer holidays early and leapfrog the USA or Germany to take their place in the round of 16.
Who knows? But then that’s the fun of football. All we do know is that Ghana have already been paid $3m in cash to play.
It’s going to be a lot of fun. Stay tuned here for the very best live coverage, including all the build-up and our minute-by-minute report of the big game in Brasilia.
The team news
Portugal (Possible, 4-3-3): Beto; Almeida, Costa, Alves, Pereia; Meireles, Carvalho, Moutinho; Varela. Ronaldo, Nani.
Ghana (Possible, 4-2-3-1): Dauda; Afful, Mensah, Boye, Asamoah; Rabiu, Badu; Atsu, J Ayew, A Ayew; Gyan.
Referee: Nawaf Shukralla (Bahrain).