Asamoah Gyan believes his absence helped Ghana beat Congo

Ghanaian skipper Asamoah Gyan believes his team would have struggled to get all three points against Congo in Brazzaville, had he featured in the World Cup qualifier.

Kwesi Appiah's side were humbled by the Black Cats by a 5-1 scoreline in the absence of Gyan, who missed the match with a groin injury.

The match was pretty much open-minded with both teams in desperate to save their World Cup hopes. However, it was Ghana who came up triumphs while eliminating their Central African counterparts from next year's World Cup finals. A hat-trick from Thomas Partey and a brace from Richmond Boakye-Yiadom were enough to see Ghana record their first victory of the qualifying campaign, and this gives them a minor hope of turning it around in the final two games of their group.

Gyan, who played the 1-1 stalemate against Congo in Kumasi last week, admitted that his absence encouraged the opposition to take an aggressive approach, and this helped the Black Stars clinch a resounding victory, he told Hot FM: "It is true we could have struggled to win if I had played. It is possible that with me, they would have been very defensive but without me, they opened up and that gave us the chance to score five.

In Kumasi, they were very defensive with five men at the back when I was in the game. When I was substituted, they opened up and we scored. So my absence really helped the team."

The 31-year-old is Ghana's all-time leading scorer with an impressive tally of 51 goals in 105 appearances. He will be back in action for the World Cup qualifier against Uganda next month, and the game is likely to possess a huge challenge as the East African nation rarely lose at home. Uganda have not lost a World Cup qualifier in front of their supporters since 2004, and Ghana may well require a miracle to stay alive with Congo having also to beat Egypt in the other encounter. Ghana are currently on five points after four games played, four points behind leaders Egypt.