The much expected miracle at the Air Defence Stadium in Cairo failed to see the light of day as Ghana booked their place for the 2014 FIFA World Cup despite a 2-1 loss against Egypt on Tuesday.
Burly striker Amr Zaki and Mohamed Nagy 'Geddo' scored in either half whilst Kevin Prince Boateng netted the vital away goal for the visitors in the closing stages.
The Black Stars thus qualified 7-3 on aggregate and complete a hat-trick of appearances at the World Cup.
The Pharaohs, who needed to score at least five unanswered goals to turn the tie their favour worked very hard backed by a vociferous crowd but the expected result remained elusive.
The match started on a good pace with Zaki having a first attempt at goal as early as the fourth minute but Ghana goalie Fatau Dauda responded a with good save. Few minutes later, Abdul Majeed Waris was nicely put through and with only Sherif Ekramy at his mercy, his shot missed by inches.
Veteran midfielder Mohamed Aboutrika, who was playing probably his last game for the Pharaohs, crossed from a set-piece and Zaki rose above his marker to head home for the opener after 25 minutes.
The Egyptians were a delight to watch as they swung passes from defence to attack as if the Ghana midfield never existed. During one of such forays on 34 minutes, Zaki delivered a curling shot which Dauda tipped out of danger.
At that point, Egypt needed to score four goals and they resumed with the same tempo, hoping to reduce the deficit. They continued to keep the Ghana defence on their toes with Mohamed Salah and Aboutrika leading the moves upfront.
However, they had to wait till the 83 minute before Geddo riffled in a shot from close range for the second goal. With that Egypt had to score three to go through and as they moved upfront, they were punished by Ghana on the counter.
From the move on 88 minutes, Asamoah Gyan crossed to Boateng who tucked home and take the game beyond the hosts. The Ghanaians held on to the scoreline and achieve the qualification away from a foreign soil.
Ghana made their debut at the World Cup in 2006 in Germany, before reaching the quarters four years later in South Africa, losing to Uruguay painfully on penalties.