England 0-0 Ghana: FIFA World Cup Match Report

England 0-0 Ghana was the only goalless match Group L produced and the only one of England's three group fixtures in which they failed to score. It was scoreless at half-time and scoreless at the end, ninety minutes that gave both sides a point neither had planned for.

The two teams arrived from opposite kinds of opening result. England had beaten Croatia 4-2 in a match that produced six goals; Ghana had beaten Panama 1-0 in one that produced a single goal. Both had three points, and the second round asked which of the two templates the meeting would follow. It followed Ghana's.

Ghana's defensive record explains a good deal of it. Across the entire group stage they conceded two goals — the joint-lowest in the group — and none at all in their first two matches. England's attack, which had scored four goals three days earlier, met a back line that had not yet been breached and did not breach it either.

Ghana's own output was equally modest: two goals in three matches. Neither side had a scoring pattern that suggested a goalless draw, and between them they produced one anyway.

The point moved both to four and left the group unresolved with a round to play. England settled it on the final day with a 2-0 win over Panama, taking the group on seven points. Ghana lost 2-1 to Croatia and finished third on four.

That defeat is what turned this draw from a decent away point into a costly one. A win here would have put Ghana on six and level with the Croatia side that finished second; the two points dropped were exactly the gap between them at the end. Instead they closed the group having conceded only two goals — as few as anyone in it — and having scored the same number.

Panama finished bottom without a point or a goal.

Our pre-match call was England to win at 1.55. It was the shortest price we took in the group and the one that came apart most flatly — not with a defeat, which would at least have been an event, but with ninety goalless minutes.

The mistake was reading England's 4-2 as evidence of attacking form rather than as evidence that Croatia had defended badly. Ghana had conceded nothing at that stage and would concede only twice across the whole group stage. Backing a team to break down an unbeaten defence on the strength of one high-scoring match against a different, looser one is a familiar way to lose a short-priced bet, and it duly did.

Verdict: lost