{"id":37408,"date":"2026-06-18T07:16:50","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:16:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=37408"},"modified":"2026-06-18T07:16:50","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T05:16:50","slug":"yirenkyis-95th-minute-strike-seals-world-cup-win-for-ghana-over-panama","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/yirenkyis-95th-minute-strike-seals-world-cup-win-for-ghana-over-panama\/","title":{"rendered":"Yirenkyi\u2019s 95th-minute strike seals World Cup win for Ghana over Panama \u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>It took until the 95th minute, but Ghana finally broke Panama\u2019s hearts in Toronto, snatching a late victory and denying the Central Americans what would have been their first-ever World Cup point.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>With six minutes of injury time added to a match that had offered very few clear chances, Brandon Thomas-Asante found a burst of late energy. The forward surged down the left flank, beat his marker, and squared a perfect ball across the face of goal for Caleb Yirenkyi, who made no mistake with the tap-in.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It was incredibly harsh on Panama. Playing in only their fourth World Cup match since making their tournament debut in 2018, they went toe-to-toe with the four-time African champions for nearly the entire game.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Ghana had to navigate the match without key midfielder Thomas Partey. The Arsenal man was blocked from entering Canada due to ongoing legal proceedings in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The Black Stars will now head to Boston on Tuesday for a heavyweight Group L clash against leaders England. Panama remain in Toronto, where they will try to dust themselves down and break their World Cup losing streak against Croatia on Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":37409,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[305,20],"class_list":["post-37408","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-special-projects","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Yirenkyi\u2019s 95th-minute heartbreak denies Panama historic World Cup point against Ghana","published_date":"2026-06-18 07:09:38","news_description":"Yirenkyi\u2019s 95th-minute heartbreak denies Panama historic World Cup point against Ghana","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37410,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37408\/revisions\/37410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37409"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=37408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}