Hearts of Oak walk a tightrope after narrow win against WAC
Accra Hearts of Oak Coach, Samuel Boadu, is hoping for good officiating in their CAF Champions League return game against Wydad Athletic Club (WAC) of Morocco next week after beating them 1-0 at the Accra Sports Stadium on Sunday.
The slim victory has put Hearts in a tight position heading into Sunday's return encounter, but their head coach anticipates the return from injury of the other trusted players, including Caleb Amankwah, Raddy Ovouka, and Emmanuel Nettey, will beef up and strengthen his team to face the challenge in Casablanca and progress to the next round of the competition.
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Coach Boadu told the media after the match that the club's medical staff would work to ensure these players recover in time for the return encounter.
Isaac Mensah put Accra Hearts of Oak ahead in the 42 minute when he beat his marker in the penalty box and latched onto a long searching ball, and whipped it beneath goalkeeper Yanis Henin for the opener.
Isaac Mensah celebrating his winning goal for Hearts of Oak
The goal was a product of Hearts' dominance but the home side paid a big price for wasting many scoring chances which would have calmed down their coach whose complaints over poor officiating attracted a yellow card by the Angolan referee, Helder Rodrigues de Carvalho.
The referee incurred the displeasure of the home team and supporters for perceived bias after ignoring a penalty claim in each half after Kofi Kodzi and Ibrahim Salifu were brought down in the WAC penalty box.
Wydad also had cause to question the referee's judgement on the stroke of full time when they scored what looked like a last gasp equaliser through Saimon HappyGod Msuva but the goal was ruled offside by the referee much to the relief of the Hearts fans.
Frederick Ansah Botchway could have fetched the opener in the 14th minute when his volley went wide before their burly striker, Kodzi, was also spotted in the box but could not find the back of the net.
Just when Hearts seemed to be in control of the game, their skipper, Fatawu Mohammed, made an unpardonable mistake of gifting a back pass to Zouheir El Moutaraji but goalkeeper Richard Atta came to his team's rescue.
WAC also rued another missed chance after Yahya Attiat Allah El Idrissi caught goalkeeper Attah off-guard with a long-range effort which swerved towards the top right corner but missed the target narrowly.
After recess, Hearts maintained their dominance and launched a series of attacks but they failed to score with Daniel Afriyie Barnieh, Kodzi and Salifu missing clear chances on separate occasions.