Ghana 1 Mali 0: Asamoah Gyan secures narrow AFCON 2017 win

AFP/Getty Images
Tom Doyle21 January 2017

Asamoah Gyan grabbed the only goal of the game as Ghana maintained their 100 per cent start in Africa Cup of Nations Group D with a tight 1-0 win over Mali in Port-Gentil.

The 31-year old headed home in the 21st minute when he met a Jordan Ayew corner and steered the ball past Mali keeper Oumar Sissoko.

Mali had gone into the game needing a win after their opening goalless draw against Egypt, and they were immediately put under pressure by one of the tournament favourites.

Andre Ayew fired wide in the early stages after being set up by Gyan, while for Mali the busy Molla Wague looked the best bet for opening the scoring.

Gyan's opener stifled any Mali momentum and the favourites continued to hold the upper hand with Christian Atsu hitting a shot straight at defender Hamari Traore.

Ghana keeper Razak Brimah made a rare save to deny Moussa Marega at the start of the second half and the same player came close again moments later with a shot from a tight angle.

Jordan Ayew shot wide for Ghana but the underdogs were enjoying a good spell with Salif Coulibaly the latest to steer a low shot just wide of target.

Substitute Moussa Doumbia maintained the pressure with a header just over the bar, then Traore found the side-netting with a volley from 25 yards.

Mali continued to push for an equaliser and came close again 10 minutes from time when substitute Kalifa Coulibaly sent a header agonisingly across the face of the six-yard box.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in