CAF Online
Sunday April 30, 2023
Somali’s head coach Nur Mohamed Amin has rued mistakes that led to their defeat in their opening game at the TotalEnergies U17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), going down 2-0 to hosts Algeria at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers on Saturday night.
Goals in either half from skipper Moslem Anatouf saw Algeria condemn the debutants to defeat in their first ever match in Continental football.
“We wanted to win the opening match against Algeria but football is a sport with three results; a win, loss or a draw. Algeria won and that is football,” the tactician said.
“We saw some mistakes that we will try to correct in the next game and try to win. Our ambition is to go for victory in the next assignment,” further opined the tactician after the game.
Nur also said the fact that his players did not have a long period to train together played a role in their defeat, but says they are gathering synergy as the days progress.
“All our players are students and we selected them from school tournaments. They did not have the chance to play a lot of friendly matches and we were just together for three months for preparation,” the tactician noted.
Somalia’s next game will be against Congo next Tuesday and another defeat will be a blow to their hopes of making the last eight.