TotalEnergies U17 AFCON: Somalia match will be decisive, says Congo’s Cesana

Congo’s head coach Fabrizio Cesana says their second Group A match of the TotalEnergies U17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) against Somalia on Tuesday night in Algiers will be crucial and decisive, and has called on his players to embrace the challenge and battle for a win.

Congo lost their opening match of the tournament 1-0 to Senegal, and to retain their hopes of making the last eight, victory against debutants Somalia will be key.

"Our match against Somalia will be key and decisive. We must win this match to record points and we must intensify our efforts to achieve that,” the tactician said as he spoke during the pre-match press conference at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers.

The coach has insisted that the team’s strengths have to be majored on their mental preparedness, saying they have picked crucial lessons from the game against Senegal to enable them be ready for Somalia.

“This will be a tough match and I talked to the players and told them that we lost our opening match to a team considered one of the great in Africa and we should not keep our heads down. We made some mistakes but we should learn and move forward”

Meanwhile, midfielder Digne Pounga is also optimistic they will achieve victory against Somalia, but reckons it will not come easy.

“We are confident in ourselves and with calmness and belief, we will achieve a good result,” he said.

The midfielder added; “We had so many things not going well against Senegal but we will try to avoid these mistakes and also take the positives to the game against Somalia.”

This is the first ever meeting between these two sides, as Somalia are playing their maiden continental competition at any age level.