Gyan gets up off sick bed to fire Ghana’s Afcon hopes

Algeria . . . . . . . . . . . Ghana . . . . . . . . . . . (Asamoah Gyan 90) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(0) . . . . . . . . . . . . . .(0) 1 IT’S NOT anyone who can recover from a bout of malaria in the space of a few days, play a full 90 minutes of football and then score the winner to keep your team’s hopes in the Africa Cup of Nations alive.

Asamoah Gyan is that one player.

After lying on a hospital bed for most of last week because of a “mild dose of malaria”, he stepped up to fire Ghana to a remarkable victory over tournaments favourites Algeria with a stoppage-time winner here at the Estadio de Mongomo.

Gyan shrugged off an Algerian defender with all the energy in his body, and put his sweet right foot through the ball with virtually the last kick of the match to keep the Black Stars in the tournament.

The first half was a cagey affair, and actually turned into a complete snore fest, with both teams seemingly unwilling to take any sort of risk and attack in numbers.

Of course, this suited the Algerians who would have taken a draw if it was offered to them ahead of the match.

The Desert Foxes, though, looked dangerous in possession, but they couldn’t quite get through a Ghanaian team, who were a lot more organised last night than they were in their 2-1 defeat to Senegal on Monday night.

Left back Faouzi Feghouli, who scored against Bafana Bafana in their first match of the tournament, tried to test the Ghana goalkeeper with a free kick from distance, but effort sailed wide in the fifth minute.

There was a lot of activity in midfield from both teams, but not much penetration.

The tackles also flew in from both teams. Ghana hardman Afriyie Acquah was yellow carded just after the half hour mark when he chopped down dangerous Algeria winger Yacine Brahimi.

And there were also some handbags, one of the few exciting moments in the match, as things started to heat up in the middle of the park.

However, it was Harrison Afful’s awful cross at the end of the first half, when he had plenty of space to work with, that summed up this shambles of a football match.

The Black Stars needed something out of this game, and they were the better of the two sides at the start of the second half, as they exploited Algeria’s lack of pace down the flanks.

Afful started to find a lot of space down the right wing, and he was giving Faouzi Ghoulam a real working over on that side of the field.

Afful’s crossing also improved out of sight in the second stanza, and he set up the returning Gyan with a lovely ball into the area.

However, the Ghana striker couldn’t get enough purchase on the ball to steer it towards goal.

Just after the hour mark, Andre Ayew then managed to get himself free on the right, and cut inside past two Algerian defenders. He fed his brother, Jordan, who tried an extravagant back flick, but his effort trickled wide.

With Ghana throwing numbers forward, there was always going to be a chance that they were going to be caught on the counter. And one sweeping move saw Brahimi feed Nabil Bentaleb, who shot wide from a tight angle.

Gyan had looked like the shadow of the player he once was. But he needed just one chance to turn the match on its head. And that goal could yet prove to be a vital moment in Group C.