Competition: 2012 African Nations Cup Qualifier
Teams: Congo 0-3 Ghana
Venue: Alphonse Massamba Debat Stadium - Brazzaville
Date: March 27, 2011
Time: 14:30 GMT [2:30PM Local Time]
Ghana kept their 2010 African Nations Cup qualifying campaign on track in Brazzaville, where three goals from Prince Tagoe, Dominic Adiyiah and Sulley Muntari proved enough to see off Congo.
The Black Stars maintained their place at the top of Group I, with an efficient display in Goran Stevanovic's first competitive game on the continent.
The win sees the Black Stars move to 7 points but with a better goal difference ahead Sudan who were also 3-0 winners over Swaziland on Sunday.
Ghana picked up two yellow cards on the day as David Addy and Sulley Muntari were booked by South African referee Daniel Bennett.
A first half double and a third in the second half set Ghana up on the road to winning the tie as Stevanovic's side kept another clean sheet in three qualifying games.
Tagoe was the first to get on the mark when he opened the scoring after 20 minutes.
Ghana doubled their lead on the stroke of halftime when Adiyiah nodded in a John Paintsil cross from the right to put the Black Stars in a comfortable lead.
But before the half ended, Stevanovic was forced to replace Addy with Lee Addy due to injury.
Ten minutes into the second half, Ghana effected their second change of the afternoon, after Tagoe was withdrawn for Samuel Inkoom.
Solid defending by captain John Mensah and Isaac Vorsah ensured that Anthony Annan and Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu could push forward in midfield as Andre Ayew and Kwadwo Asamoah occassionally swapped flanks.
Congo tested Ghana goalkeeper Richard Kingson a couple of times but the Blackpool number one put in equally good saves.
Ghana exhausted their options on the bench when Sulley Muntari was thrown into the fray, replacing Andre Ayew with a quarter of an hour to go.
Within three minutes of his introduction, Muntari rifled in a shot to increase the tally to three for Ghana.
Ghana, after the third goal had two other chances to extend their lead but both Sully and Asamoah failed to connect.
The Black Stars would welcome Congo in the reverse clash on June 5 in the fourth round of games for qualification places at the tournament to be played in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
Starting XI : Richard Kingson, John Paintsil, David Addy/Lee Addy, Isaac Vorsah, John Mensah, Anthony Annan, Andre Ayew/Sulley Muntari, Emmanuel Agyemang-Badu, Prince Tagoe/Samuel Inkoom, Dominic Adiyiah, Kwadwo Asamoah
Reserves : Ernest Sowah, Samuel Inkoom, Jonathan Mensah, Lee Addy, Sulley Muntari, Bernard Kumordzi, Derek Boateng