Ghana too much for Mauritius

14 June 2015 08:16

Ghana’s Black Stars mauled Mauritius 7-1 in their opening day of the Africa Cup of Nations Gabon 2017 qualifiers when both clashed at the Accra Sports Stadium on Sunday.

        

Ghana overwhelmed the visitors with an avalanche of goals scored by five different players.

        

Christian Atsu sent Ghana ahead after 10 minutes after positioning well to tower over his markers and nod home from a close range to send the supporters who braved an early downpour to attend the match chanting.

        

The Black Stars took absolute charge of the match thereafter following earlier threats by the visitors with Asamoah Gyan almost doubling the advantage four minutes on.

      

Gyan raced deep alone, and with goalkeeper Kevin Jean- Louis to beat hit straight with the far post begging for attention.

     

This drew Mauritius into a mini conference. But before the visitors could implement their strategy from the meeting, Jordan Ayew darted well to get to the end of a fine move initiated by Baba Rahman to up Ghana’s lead 10 minutes on.

        

The goal further unsettled ‘Les Dodos’ who had shown early prospect, forcing them to marshal numbers to settle deep in their own half in a bid to curtail the growing threat from the Black Stars.

       

But their effort was to get further bruised in the 22nd minute when Ayew got to the end of a pass to set up unmarked Gyan for the easiest job of poaching home from a close range.

    

Gyan doubled his tally on 29 minutes from another Ghana invasion that left the Mauritius defence badly compromised. The Black Stars earned a corner that swung in to meet the waiting striker to score.

       

The losers braced themselves and threw forward. Their adventure was rewarded with a goal in the 31st minute through Sophie Jean Pierre who profited from a slip by the homers’ goalkeeper Razak Briamah to get a consolation.

        

Ghana responded by scoring another on their own with yet another break from the flanks that had Ayew in the right place at the right time to record his brace seven minutes on.

         

Play resumed after recess rather slow with Mauritius exhibiting their growing confidence with some decent passes centred in the midfield and depending on the offside trip to catch Ghana’s breaks.

      

However, it was Jeffery Schlupp’s turn to mount the Black Stars’ goal tally in the 69th minute, his first ever for Ghana before David Accam completed the exercise in the dying embers of the game.

 

Confederation of African Football (CAF) News