The Baba Yara Stadium is known to be one of the most raucous stadiums on the continent.
The stadium has been home to Kumasi Asante Kotoko for decades and, in the country, can only be rivalled by the Accra Sports Stadium in terms of matchday attendance and atmosphere.
The senior national team, the Black Stars have been known to play in Kumasi whenever they are desperate for support or need an extra push from the fans for a much-needed win.
‘Much-needed win’ was probably an understatement this weekend as a win for Kotoko was not only needed, it was the only way Kotoko stood any chance of progressing.
Prior to the game, the talk about whether the players would step up when they needed to given the 3-2 deficit they needed to overcome against Kano-Pillars.
Minutes before the game, fans clad in white or red trooped into the stadium, and, once in there, they never stopped making noise.
The noise that filled the Baba Yara before kick-off would’ve lifted the roof off the stadium, if it had one.
Popular TV host, Countryman Songo, tried to whip up the crowd at the stadium but this was a crowd that needed no motivation.
A huge cheer greeted the players as they walked onto the pitch and after the minute’s silence for Junior Agogo, the sound went back up.
And instead of being intimidated by the size of the crowd and, in essence, the size of the expectations, the home players responded.
Kelvin Andoh and Emmanuel Gyamfi scored for the Porcupine Warriors as they turned the deficit around and progressed in some style.
Kotoko went through to the next round of qualifying in the competition and will now have to get past Etoile du Sahel of Tunisia.
And if they want to progress further, that red army will certainly have a massive say.
Here’s what people on social media had to say:
Baba Yara is Ghana’s #Anfield the Temple of football
— MORO TKAS #LFCDNA (@mortank) August 26, 2019
— qHuAkye (@NanaQhuakyi_M) August 25, 2019
I’m So impressed with the attendance
— Evangelist don (@don_evangelist) August 25, 2019
thats really really massive
— mr kino (@quophi295) August 25, 2019
Positive positive positive
I’m impressed— DeFacto®💪 (@elio_special) August 25, 2019
Kumasi Asante kotoko,wo kum apem a,apem beba💪😘❤️
— RICHMOND A.MYSTIKAL (@RICHMOND_A_MYST) August 25, 2019
True African Team of the Century.
— ROYAL STALLION (Osman Ouedraogo Moro) (@Royalstallion5) August 25, 2019
Indeed Oseikrom is where football is loved
— AmBarak (@barakmunin) August 25, 2019
