Asamoah Gyan was thrilled with the reception from fans

By Patrick Akoto

Asamoah Gyan has hailed the reception that he received during Ghana’s 2013 African Cup of Nations qualifier against Malawi.

The Al Ain attacker captained the Black Stars as they laboured to a 2-0 win over The Flames at the Accra Sports stadium.

The 26-year-old who played his first competitive game for the West African heavyweights since he returned from his self-imposed exile was thrilled with the kind of reception that he received from fans.

‘It’s a privilege. This is the first time I’m captaining my country and I must say I am very grateful for the opportunity,” Gyan said

“It’s a privilege and I appreciate the support of my teammates, the coach and everyone. I am also happy that we won the game which gives us a very good chance,”

“I know we have quality players playing regularly at their clubs. I can assure Ghanaians that we will go there to qualify.”

He added: “I think it’s important that Ghanaians should give us moral support. We had not played Malawi before but we have and know what they are capable so we’ll go there with the perfect plan for them,”

“ It is also important to realize that we have won by what should be a good result even if we could not score as many as we wanted,”

“They now have an ardous task to beat us by three goals and prevent us from scoring but I know we have top players to punish them.”

The Black Stars must avoid defeat in Blantyre during the return fixture to qualify to the 2013 African Cup of Nations tournaments in South Africa.