Iheanacho Fingered In Ref’s Rejection Of Eagles’ Penalty Against Ghana

Leicester City of England attacker, Kelechi Iheanacho has been fingered as the culprit that prevented the Super Eagles from getting a penalty kick in Friday’s World Cup qualifier against Ghana, megasportsarena.com reports.

Watford of England midfielder, Peter Oghenekaro Etebo, who played as a second half substitute during the game that ended goalless in Kumasi, Ghana, thought he had earned a penalty for the Eagles.

The dark-skinned battler though ended up getting a yellow card for protesting against the referee’s decision to cancel the spot kick the spot that had earlier been awarded by the same arbiter, who changed his mind after reviewing the incident on VAR.

However, a former striker and assistant coach in the Nigerian national team, Daniel ‘The Bull’ Amokachi has backed the referee’s decision and blamed a push by Iheanacho on the Ghanaian player as the reason why what appeared to be a penalty for the Eagles was overruled.

Although Amokachi admitted he initially thought it was a legitimate call by Etebo, the ex-player submitted that the ref was right in changing his mind over the 76th minute incident that involved a handball in the box by Iddrisu Baba.

It could have been a golden opportunity for the Eagles to hit a game-winning goal when the ball hit the Mallorca of Spain midfielder from Etebo’s effort, but the Moroccan ref, Redouane Jiyed changed his initial decision after spotting a foul by Iheanacho on the Ghanaian prior to the handball.

While expatiating his standpoint, ‘Amo-Taxi,’ who was an analyst for the game on SuperSport along with former Eagles’ pal, Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha and Ghana’s John Paintsil, posited that it would have been a penalty had Iheanacho not pushed Baba earlier.

Amokachi retorted: “We saw the replay, the referee that went to see the monitor has a more better chance to see it.

“It was a penalty kick one hundred percent without the pull but when you look at it, a foul before the penalty kick, I think the referee got it spot on.

“When the referee was called back to look at the monitor we knew it was going to be disallowed. That’s when I saw the trip.”