{"id":483790,"date":"2026-06-18T14:38:16","date_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:38:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/483790\/"},"modified":"2026-06-18T14:38:16","modified_gmt":"2026-06-18T14:38:16","slug":"fifa-world-cup-ghana-beat-panama-with-stoppage-time-winner-in-world-cup-opener","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/483790\/","title":{"rendered":"Fifa World Cup: Ghana beat Panama with stoppage-time winner in World Cup opener"},"content":{"rendered":"

The second half played out under steady rain at the Toronto Stadium but saw more sustained attacking play.<\/p>\n

Cristian Martinez triggered a massive roar from the loud Panamanian contingent when he lashed a shot into the side-netting in the 60th minute.<\/p>\n

But the match looked headed for a scoreless draw until Yirenkyi put the Black Stars ahead.<\/p>\n

Ghana\u2019s veteran coach Carlos Queiroz turned to his side\u2019s fans after the goal, urging them on in celebration.<\/p>\n

Fifa World Cup schedule and results<\/a><\/p>\n

Fifa World Cup standings<\/a><\/p>\n

Queiroz only took charge of the Black Stars a couple of months before the start of the tournament.<\/p>\n

Thursday\u2019s (NZT) fixture made him only the second coach to appear in five consecutive World Cups, after leading Portugal in 2010 and Iran in 2014, 2018 and 2022.<\/p>\n

Loud boos rang out across the crowd of nearly 43,000 during a second-half hydration break under pouring rain.<\/p>\n

Ghana triumphed despite being without Villarreal midfielder Thomas Partey, who is facing trial on rape charges in Britain. Canadian authorities denied him a World Cup visa over the British case.<\/p>\n

Go all in to unlock every Fifa World Cup 2026 match with a TVNZ+ Event Pass<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The second half played out under steady rain at the Toronto Stadium but saw more sustained attacking play.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":483791,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[4498,3019,10542,18089,36862,10036,209,78,111,139,69,20248,10521,1523,50904,22312,213,242943,165,1865,5130,8982,10508,102,377],"class_list":["post-483790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-beat","tag-clash","tag-cup","tag-dramatic","tag-fifa","tag-ghana","tag-group","tag-in","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-opener","tag-opening","tag-over","tag-panama","tag-scored","tag-sports","tag-stoppagetime","tag-their","tag-today","tag-toronto","tag-victory","tag-winner","tag-with","tag-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=483790"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/483790\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/483791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=483790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=483790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=483790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}