Semenyo and Ghana aim to emulate 2010 World Cup heroes as they face England

A ntoine Semenyo was only 10 years old when Ghana came within a Luis Suárez handball of becoming the first African team ever to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup . The Manchester City forward can still vividly recall the emotions that night as he watched with his family in Bexleyheath, south-east London. “I remember being at my uncle’s house, and we were screaming after the handball , thinking we were going through,” he said in an interview last month . “Watching Ghana play in the World Cup was so special. Mum, Dad, uncles, aunties, cousins all turn up to one house, and we would watch all the games together, celebrating and screaming. Ghana came in [for me] when I was 19 or 20, so I was never going to turn it down.” Yet while Asamoah Gyan and co certainly made an impression on the young Semenyo – who will come face-to-face with City teammates Nico O’Reilly and John Stones against England in Massachusetts on Tuesday – the legacy of the Black Stars’ historic run to the quarter-finals in 2010 in South Africa has largely been disappointment. Ghana’s appearance at the next World Cup in Brazil ended in an early elimination after finishing bottom of their group and they didn’t fare much better in Qatar four years ago, despite beating South Korea. Their failure to reach the African Nations Cup finals last year for the first time since 2004 was a national embarrassment that was only eased by qualifying for a fifth World Cup. …