Yirenkyi will get the headline and he earned it, gambling on the far post run when the cross came in. Goalkeeper Benjamin Asare also deserves a mention for denying Orlando Mosquera on a stoppage-time set piece that Panama nearly stole back. Three points is three points, and in a group with England, Ghana absolutely had to have them.
Brutal. Thomas Christiansen's side were the better team for long stretches — they pressed Ghana high early, created the cleaner looks before the break, and looked perfectly content to take a point off a side the books made the favorite. Ismael Diaz and Cecilio Waterman ran the channels hard, and the back three of Cordoba, Ramos and Barcenas had Prince Adu in their pocket most of the night.
Then it all evaporated in injury time. Carlos Harvey picked up a yellow as tempers flared after the goal, and Mosquera even came up for the free kick that nearly produced an instant equalizer. Instead Panama walk out of Toronto with zero points and the math gets ugly fast — England is next, and a group with England in it does not forgive a Matchday 1 loss.
The market had this priced as basically a coin flip with Ghana a nose in front — Polymarket closed Ghana around 40% with the draw at 32%, and for 94 minutes the draw price was looking awfully smart. Yirenkyi's toe-poke flipped a tournament's worth of probability in one swing.
England is still the runaway group favorite at 90% to win Group L, but Ghana now has air under it — round-of-16 odds sit at 16% with Croatia up next, while Panama drops to 8% and has to go pull a result off England to stay alive. Wednesday in Toronto was supposed to be the easy half of the schedule for both. Only one team treated it that way.
Colombia0-1
Croatia1-2
England0-0
Panama1-0England0-2Croatia0-1Ghana0-1