I could have had a hat-trick – Gyan

Ghana captain, Asamoah Gyan has admitted he was wasteful despite grabbing a brace in the Black Stars 7-1 mauling of Mauritius in the opening day of the Gabon 2017 Nations Cup qualifier in Accra on Sunday.

Gyan who snatched a first half brace and missed sitters in the second half said after the match that “The first half was brilliant, everything worked well. In the second half, we had a couple of chances especially me; I could have had a hat-trick but that is football.”

Christian Atsu sent Ghana ahead in 10 minutes after positioning well to tower over his markers and head in from a close range. The homers took complete control of the match afterwards, unsettling their visitors on all fronts.

The striker said that “We came into the game to score an early goal and that was what we got. Playing against a team like Mauritius, you need to score in the first 15 minutes and the team did an incredible job.

“It got to a time that we had control over the game and the rest of the players were tired so we had to calm down and made sure to possess the ball and then press again later as our game plan.”

Gyan finished off a set-up by Jordan Ayew in the 21st minutes before doubling his tally in 29th minutes from another Ghana invasion that left the Mauritius defence in bits.

He said of the campaign for another appearance at the continent’s most prestigious competition, “It has been a very good start for us. It is not yet over, this is the first game and we should not be swollen headed.

“We should keep working hard because seven goals are incredible and I hope we continue.”

Ghana leads Group H with three points and on superior goals after Rwanda beat Mozambique 1-0 to go second.

The Black Stars were silver medalist at the last edition of the competition hosted by Equatorial Guinea earlier in the year.