Kotoko Boot Out Wikki

ERIC BEKOE took his extraordinary scoring prowess on the local scene to Africa when he managed a brace in Kotoko’s 4-1 drubbing of Wikki Tourist of Nigeria in a second leg Africa Confederation’s Cup tie played at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi yesterday. With this score-line, Kotoko, who played a 2-2 drawn game with their guests a fortnight ago, has advanced to the next stage of the competition on a 6-3 aggregate. An ordinary-looking Kotoko team, which found the net just once in the first half after pep-talks from Coach Bashiru Hayford, upped their game after the break to score three scintillating goals to carry the day. Playing before their vociferous fans who stormed the stadium in their numbers, the Porcupine Warriors drew first blood in the 19th minute when their experienced Skipper, Emmanuel Osei Kufuor shot home through a goal-mouth scramble. Then on, Kotoko surprisingly looked relaxed, allowing their opponents to dictate the pace of the game and in some instances kept the Kotoko goal area boiling, much to the chagrin of the home crowd. However, after pep-talks from Coach Bash, Kotoko played above themselves and fought like wounded lions to turn the tide in their favour, scoring three spectacular goals to bring the almost dead stadium alive. Tormentor-in-chief Eric Bekoe started the assassination of Wikki Tourist when he connected home beautifully an in-swinger from Francis Cofie, after making nonsense of his marker at the left flank in the 53rd minute. Then Bekoe, who seemed not content with the goal, wrote his name on the scoring sheet again when in the 64th minute he captalised on a defensive blunder on the part of Wikki Tourist defensemen to slot home beautifully. Francis Cofie made sure that Wikki Tourist was out of contention when in the 68th minute, he unleashed a thunderbolt which zoomed straight into the yawing net to the delight of the home crowd. But when the game was heading to an end, Wikki Tourist, who were not perturbed by their huge goal deficit, snatched a consolation goal through Philip Auta in the 83rd minute via a goal-mouth melee to bring the scores to 4-1 and in aggregate 6-3 in favour of Kotoko, who have now qualified for the next stage of the competition.