{"id":350986,"date":"2017-09-05T16:25:14","date_gmt":"2017-09-05T16:25:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=350986"},"modified":"2017-11-10T12:05:34","modified_gmt":"2017-11-10T12:05:34","slug":"partey-nets-hat-trick-as-black-stars-hammer-congo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=350986","title":{"rendered":"Partey nets hat-trick as Black Stars hammer Congo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thomas Partey scored a hat-trick as the Black Stars kept their hopes of securing a place at the 2018 World Cup alive with a shocking 5-1 win over Congo in Brazzaville on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Richmond Boakye Yiadom, starting in place of the injured Asamoah Gyan, put the Black Stars ahead after good work on the left by Thomas Agyepong.<\/p>\n

Thomas Partey doubled the Black Stars’ lead a minute later with his second in two games against the Congolese.<\/p>\n

Congo pulled a goal back after Lloyd headed in from a corner, but the Stars restored their two-goal lead after Partey\u00a0fired home for his second of the game right before half-time.<\/p>\n

Partey\u00a0completed his hat-trick when he run through on goal in the second half and finished into the top corner.<\/p>\n

Boakye-Yiadom put the icing on the cake with his second of the match with a neat finish.<\/p>\n

The result means the Black Stars have five points from four games, two points behind Uganda\u00a0and one behind Egypt, with the two sides set to face each other later tonight.<\/p>\n

Kwesi Appiah made five changes to the team that drew 1-1 with Congo on Friday.<\/p>\n

With captain Asamoah Gyan and Andre Ayew ruled out of the game with injury and Jordan Ayew suffering a stomach ache, Appiah handed starts to Thomas Agyepong,\u00a0Afriyie Acquah and Richmond\u00a0Boakye-Yiadom.<\/p>\n

The Black Stars chances of making the tournament in Russia had taken a huge blow after the draw in Kumasi and any result other the win would have ended them altogether.<\/p>\n

The Congolese started the game brightly and created a number of chances, coming closest through Bifouma who run through on goal but was thwarted by keeper, Richard Ofori.<\/p>\n

The Black Stars however, took the lead against the run of play as Thomas Agyepong, beat his man on the left and cut the ball back into the box.<\/p>\n

\"ghana4\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Ebenezer Ofori’s mishit was diverted into the path of Richmond Boakye-Yiadom who tapped the ball home.<\/p>\n

The lead was doubled seconds later as Atsu run clear on the left and crossed into the box for Boakye-Yiadom whose deflected shot fell for Partey who didn’t miss.<\/p>\n

Richard Ofori was forced into another good save but Congo pulled a goal back when Lloyd headed home from the resulting corner.<\/p>\n

Partey restored Ghana’s two-goal lead right at the end of the half, latching onto Atsu’s pass to fire home at the keeper’s near post.<\/p>\n

The Congolese started brightly in the second half as well but found the Stars’ centre back pairing of Jonathan Mensah and Daniel \u00a0Amartey a tough nut to crack.<\/p>\n

Richard Ofori made a number of decent saves to keep the Black Stars ahead with Daniel Amartey chipping in with one particularly key tackle.<\/p>\n

Partey made the points safe as he raced through a tiring Congolese defence to fire into the top corner.<\/p>\n

Richmond Boakye-Yiadom made his case for a starting spot even stronger, finishing after latching onto a pass from Atsu<\/p>\n

Citi Sports Man of the Match<\/strong>
\n<\/a><\/p>\n

\"partey\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Thomas Partey<\/strong> has scored four\u00a0goals in his last two games for the Black Stars, all against Congo<\/p>\n

Black Stars XI<\/strong><\/p>\n

Richard Ofori, Harrison Afful, Lumor Agbenyenu, Daniel Amartey, Jonathan Mensah, Afriyie Acquah, Ebenezer Ofori, Richmond Boakye Yiadom, Thomas Agyepong, Thomas Partey, Christian Atsu<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

By: Edwin Kwakofi\/citifmonline.com\/Ghana<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thomas Partey scored a hat-trick as the Black Stars kept their hopes of securing a place at the 2018 World Cup alive with a shocking 5-1 win over Congo in Brazzaville on Tuesday. Richmond Boakye Yiadom, starting in place of the injured Asamoah Gyan, put the Black Stars ahead after good work on the left […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[142,10],"tags":[455,42,1910],"class_list":["post-350986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-football","category-slider-1","tag-black-stars","tag-ghana","tag-thomas-partey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350986","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=350986"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/350986\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=350986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=350986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=350986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}