Accra Great Olympics thump Accra Lions 3-1
Accra Great Olympics recorded a 3-1 victory over their newest city rivals Accra Lions in a thrilling game at the Accra Sports Stadium on Sunday night.
The key part of the game was unarguably the hat-trick from Olympics winger Maxwell Abbey Quaye, who put Lions to the sword with 3 fantastic goals.
The opening 10 minutes of the game were full of end-to-end action, with the debutants looking the more dangerous team.
Attacker Rauf Salifu mostly found space behind the right side of the Olympics defence and had a great chance on the 15th minute but could only blast the ball over from 8 yards.
However, against the run of play, Maxwell Quaye scored an amazing curler and a goal of the season contender to give Olympics the lead after 20 minutes.
Six minutes later he hit the post again with a stunning effort from range.
The Dade boys grew into confidence and ended the first half leading1-0.
In the second half, Lions came flying out of the blocks and after substitute Frimpong was fouled and the resulting free-kick was headed after 57 mins through a corner kick. After a brief goalmouth scramble, Richmond Ankrah scored a diving header to level the scores.
Olympics had a great chance just 2 mins later but Quaye pulled his shot wide after being played through by Razak Yusif.
There was a display of tactical prowess as Olympics seemed to have changed to a diamond formation in midfield for the second half and it gave them the opportunity to put more pressure on the 3 centre-backs of Lions by pulling them wider whilst giving left-back Eric Osei Bonsu license to push forward.
This also allowed them to press more effectively and Lions could not build up as well as they had in the first half.
This lead to a turnover as keeper Appiah Kubi played the ball straight to an Olympics player on the edge of his box and Quaye doubled his tally with a delicate lob over the stranded keeper.
Quaye was finding space behind Jacob Mensah who was playing as the right-sided centre-back. The ball was knocked into the channel and Quaye beat Mensah for pace before being brought down in the box.
The kick was delayed as Mensah went down injured and was treated for some time but he was eventually stretched off with what looked like a serious injury.
On 88 mins Ankrah made a total hash of a simple clearance and allowed Quaye to get in behind the defence once again. His left-footed effort was not good enough and was pushed away by Kubi.
Maxwell Abbey Quaye’s hattrick means he is the first player to score a hattrick in the 2021/2022 season.
Accra Great Olympics go 3rd with 4 points after two games.
