Garay López hails vital Mauritania win, Ngato vows Central African fightback

Under the bright Nairobi night, Mauritania finally found their rhythm at the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) “Pamoja” 2024, edging past the Central African Republic 1-0 in a tense Group B clash that breathed life into their qualification campaign.

While the scoreboard told one story, the coaches’ words revealed another — a tale of resilience, mutual respect, and a stubborn refusal to surrender in a fiercely competitive group.

For Mauritania boss Garay Ortiz López, this was more than just three points. It was validation.

Validation for the hours of tactical drills, the adjustments forced by a relentless tournament schedule, and the mental strain of knowing one slip could mean elimination.

“I am happy, and so are all the players in the Mauritanian national team after this win. I am also happy for our players who played a good game. It was difficult to win against the Central African Republic, but in the end, we succeeded and achieved victory,” he said with a smile that masked the pressure of the preceding days.

His squad had stumbled early in the tournament, but against a determined Central African side, Mauritania’s forwards finally found the cutting edge he had been demanding.

“Our match against the Central African Republic was complicated and difficult. We tried to play attacking football and scored after creating four real scoring chances,” López explained, quick to tip his hat to the opposition.

“I encourage the Central African Republic coach because he also did a good job before the match, and I admire their players a lot.”

The victory moved Mauritania to second place with four points, transforming their outlook in the group. Yet López was not blind to the imperfections.

“We have a busy and difficult schedule in this tournament. After every match, we have to change players and the way we play. We sought victory in this match to avoid elimination. The pressure was high on the players. Our performance was not the best, but we chose the ones who could play. We will work on improving our performance in the next match.”

On the other side, Central African Republic coach Sébastien Ngato faced the challenge of lifting a side with no points from two games. Yet his tone was far from defeatist.

“I am proud of the level shown by our players. We still have chances in the rest of the competition. We learned lessons from this match against Mauritania and will try to use them later to give a good image of Central African football,” Ngato insisted.

His team had spells of pressure, but Mauritania’s early strike proved decisive.

“We created chances in attack, but the opponent was stronger than us and scored in the first half early in the match,” he admitted, before turning his focus to solutions.

“We need to focus on the mistakes we made and will try to correct them in the future.”

Ngato’s belief in qualification remains firm.

“We still have chances to qualify for the next round. We will give our best in the next two matches to go as far as possible,” he said.

“We had chances to score and couldn’t take them. We tried to reach the opponent’s goal, but what happened happened.

"We can’t say everything was bad, and our players were bad too. We will work before the next match to correct what can be corrected.”

For both coaches, the message was clear: CHAN’s group stages are a marathon, not a sprint. Sunday’s game may have swung Mauritania’s way, but with more matches ahead, the story of Group B is still far from over.