{"id":64860,"date":"2024-02-08T14:36:04","date_gmt":"2024-02-08T14:36:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/all-news\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon"},"modified":"2024-02-08T16:57:34","modified_gmt":"2024-02-08T16:57:34","slug":"kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon","title":{"rendered":"Kessie optimistic revitalized C\u00f4te d’Ivoire can win AFCON"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. <\/strong><\/span>Co\u0302te d’Ivoire midfielder Franck Yannick Kessie says it has been a turnover for his team and they can\u2019t afford to falter again when they face the Super Eagles of Nigeria in the AFCON 2023 final on Sunday, February 11.<\/p>\n

The Elephants qualified for the round of 16 as one the best third-placed teams despite losing 4-0 to Equatorial Guinea in their final Group game. They went on to survive scares against defending champions Senegal as well as Mali in the quarterfinals before edging DR Congo on Wednesday night, February 7, to book their spot in the grand finale.<\/p>\n

Kessie, who has established himself as a key figure in the middle of the pitch for the hosts, was named as the official CAF man of the match against the Leopards and his eyes are now firmly fixed on the trophy.<\/p>\n

“As long as you still have a five or 10 percent chance you need to keep believing, because that is what makes football beautiful,” Kessie told the press after semifinal win over DR Congo.<\/p>\n

“After the Morocco result we knew we had qualified and that changed everything.\u201d<\/p>\n

“It gave us the strength we needed, it boosted us. We knew we couldn’t do worse than in the first round. We need to keep going like this because you can’t go all the way to the final only to then give up,” he added<\/p>\n

Co\u0302te d’Ivoire and Nigeria met in Group A of the competition on January 18 with the Super Eagles winning 1-0 courtesy a William Troost-Ekong penalty.<\/p>\n

This is going to be the first final between two West African countries since the Ivorians beat Ghana 9-8 on penalties to win the 2015 edition in Equatorial Guinea.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Rwanda<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Rwanda. Co\u0302te d’Ivoire midfielder Franck Yannick Kessie says it has been a turnover for his team and they can\u2019t afford to falter again when they face the Super Eagles of Nigeria in the AFCON 2023 final on Sunday, February 11. The Elephants qualified for the round of 16 as one the best third-placed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":64859,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[4645,760,763,4199,4992,758],"class_list":["post-64860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-afcon-2023","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-rwanda","tag-cote-divoire","tag-franck-yannick-kessie","tag-rwanda"],"yoast_head":"\nKessie optimistic revitalized C\u00f4te d'Ivoire can win AFCON - Rwanda<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Co\u0302te d'Ivoire midfielder Franck Yannick Kessie says it has been a turnover for his team and they can\u2019t afford to falter ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Kessie optimistic revitalized C\u00f4te d'Ivoire can win AFCON\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Co\u0302te d'Ivoire midfielder Franck Yannick Kessie says it has been a turnover for his team and they can\u2019t afford to falter ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rwanda\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-08T14:36:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-08T16:57:34+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/02\/sm_1707397783.566553.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"611\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Kessie optimistic revitalized C\u00f4te d’Ivoire can win AFCON\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-08T14:36:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-08T16:57:34+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon\"},\"wordCount\":307,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/02\/sm_1707397783.566553.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"AFCON 2023\",\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Rwanda\",\"C\u00f4te dIvoire\",\"Franck Yannick Kessie\",\"Rwanda\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon\",\"name\":\"Kessie optimistic revitalized C\u00f4te d'Ivoire can win AFCON - Rwanda\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/02\/sm_1707397783.566553.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-08T14:36:04+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-08T16:57:34+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Co\u0302te d'Ivoire midfielder Franck Yannick Kessie says it has been a turnover for his team and they can\u2019t afford to falter ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/02\/sm_1707397783.566553.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/02\/sm_1707397783.566553.jpg\",\"width\":1000,\"height\":611,\"caption\":\"Kessie optimistic revitalized C\u00f4te d'Ivoire can win AFCON\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Kessie optimistic revitalized C\u00f4te d’Ivoire can win AFCON\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/\",\"name\":\"Rwanda\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Kessie optimistic revitalized C\u00f4te d'Ivoire can win AFCON - Rwanda","description":"Co\u0302te d'Ivoire midfielder Franck Yannick Kessie says it has been a turnover for his team and they can\u2019t afford to falter ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Kessie optimistic revitalized C\u00f4te d'Ivoire can win AFCON","og_description":"Co\u0302te d'Ivoire midfielder Franck Yannick Kessie says it has been a turnover for his team and they can\u2019t afford to falter ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon","og_site_name":"Rwanda","article_published_time":"2024-02-08T14:36:04+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-08T16:57:34+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":611,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/02\/sm_1707397783.566553.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Kessie optimistic revitalized C\u00f4te d’Ivoire can win AFCON","datePublished":"2024-02-08T14:36:04+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-08T16:57:34+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon"},"wordCount":307,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/02\/sm_1707397783.566553.jpg","keywords":["AFCON 2023","Africa Press","Africa Press-Rwanda","C\u00f4te dIvoire","Franck Yannick Kessie","Rwanda"],"articleSection":["all news","Sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon","name":"Kessie optimistic revitalized C\u00f4te d'Ivoire can win AFCON - Rwanda","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/02\/sm_1707397783.566553.jpg","datePublished":"2024-02-08T14:36:04+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-08T16:57:34+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Co\u0302te d'Ivoire midfielder Franck Yannick Kessie says it has been a turnover for his team and they can\u2019t afford to falter ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/02\/sm_1707397783.566553.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sites\/23\/2024\/02\/sm_1707397783.566553.jpg","width":1000,"height":611,"caption":"Kessie optimistic revitalized C\u00f4te d'Ivoire can win AFCON"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/sport\/kessie-optimistic-revitalized-cote-divoire-can-win-afcon#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Kessie optimistic revitalized C\u00f4te d’Ivoire can win AFCON"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/","name":"Rwanda","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64859"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/rwanda\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}