Ghana stands to benefit immensely from the return of striker Asamoah Gyan for the vital clash against Algeria in the highly-anticipated 2015 Africa Cup of Nations clash this evening in the Equatorial Guinea town of the Mongomo.
The Black Stars were without their prolific captain for their disappointing 2-1 defeat to Senegal in their opening group game at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations last Monday. Ghana is desperate for a win over the tournament favourites on Friday to resurrect hopes of scaling past the group stages into the knockout phase of the tournament. Avram Grant lamented the loss of his captain in the defeat against Senegal and will be glad to have the Al Ain ace back to his best for the second group game. Defender Jonathan Mensah raved about the possible return of Asamoah Gyan for the Algeria clash. “About Asamoah Gyan, he is the best in Africa and he is always scoring when he plays for Ghana,” he said. “So I know he’s going to make a big difference if he is going to play for us (against Algeria).” The Ghana team would have to minimize their profligacy if they are to achieve the desired result against Algeria on Friday. Winger Christian Atsu who was partly blamed for the defeat to Senegal due to his horrible miss says the team is over the disappointment from the Senegal game and now fully concentrated on the Algeria clash. “Nobody goes into a game to miss a chance but these kind of situations happen in games all the time,” he said. “My intention was to score and make all Ghanaian happy but it didn’t work like that. “If I had scored (against Senegal) it would have been two goals and would have been very good for us. “These kinds of things happen and we lost the game. It is behind us now and we are now focusing on our next game.” The Black Stars have made at least the last four of the AFCON since 2008. Their last group stage exit dates back to 2006 when Egypt hosted and won it.