Ghana now have to beat Guinea-Bissau in their final Group F encounter to advance to the knockout stages of the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations after being held to another draw by Cameroon on Saturday.
The Black Stars will travel to Suez on July 2 after drawing 2-2 with the Squirrels of Benin and then the 0-0 draw with the Indomitable Lions at Ismailia Stadium.
Cameroon enjoyed greater possession in the first half but it was Ghana who created the decent scoring chances but fluffed them in the largely scrappy encounter between the African powerhouses.
The Black Stars could have shot themselves in front as early as the ninth minute but from 12 meters, Kassim Adams skied the ball by side-footing a good pass from his centre-back partner Jonathan Mensah right inside the box. Three minutes later, Andre Ayew headed the ball in to the path of Christian Atsu, whose shot from outside the box went narrowly wide of the left-hand upright.
But Atsu would soon go down with what appeared a hamstring injury and had to be replaced in the 15th minute by Samuel Owusu.
On 28 minutes, Baba Rahman delivered an excellent cross to an unmarked Jordan Ayew but the striker couldn’t direct the ball towards the goal with his attempted stretch.
Karl Toko Ekambi then got in behind the Ghana defence and just when he was about to pull the trigger, Jonathan Mensah made a brilliant goal-saving tackle to salvage the situation.
Soon after, Collins Fai slipped in Clinton N’Jie down the right-hand side and his powerful shot from an acute angle was well pushed away by Richard Ofori.
Shortly before the break, N’Jie played in Ekambi down the right before receiving the cut-back across the six yard box, but his effort was brilliantly saved by Ofori when it looked destined for the right-hand corner.
The Black Stars were doing most of the attacking after the interval and Mubarak Wakaso cut in from the right-hand side on to his left foot but his effort was high and wide.
Five minutes later, Andre Ayew shot narrowly wide after being played in by Rahman. Almost immediately afterwards Wakaso, who was having a significant influence on the game, curled inches wide.
With 15 minutes to go, Cameroon played the ball in to the box and the attempted clearance fell to Christian Bassogog, who struck a powerful first-time goal-bound volley but it was bravely blocked by Mensah, who put his body on the line for his team.
Kwabena Owusu replaced Andre Ayew in the 87th minute and almost made an immediate impact when he intercepted a horrible Jean Armel Kana Biyik pass, broke quickly on the counter-attack and skipped past a few defenders before firing a vicious shot against the crossbar.
Soon after, Jordan Ayew and Andy Yiadom combined before the latter cut inside from the right and shot with his left foot towards the bottom left-hand corner but Indomitable Lions keeper Andre Onana got down well to save.
With both sides settling for a share of the spoils, Ghana have now amassed two points in as many games while Cameroon lead Group F with 4 points. Benin and Guinea-Bissau next face off in their second group game at 20:00 GMT.
Ghana’s final game against Guinea-Bissau will be held at the Suez Stadium on Tuesday, July 2. Kickoff is 16: 00 GMT.
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