Africa-Press – Tanzania. TAIFA Stars are set to play lungs out to pick maximum three points as they face Benin in the second leg of the 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers match in Cotonou today.
The country’s envoys go into the match with a revenge mentality after losing their previous game 1-0 to Benin on Thursday at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam hence they have another fresh 90 minutes to prove their abilities.
On the day, Stars squandered numerous scoring opportunities which were sourced in each half of the encounter thereby making the tense match ending in favour of the visitors.
A win today by the national flag carriers will see them equaling group J leaders Benin with seven points and rekindle their hopes of progressing into the next round with two matches to play.
It is another tough test to pass for Taifa Stars Head Coach Kim Poulsen who before the trip cemented that his boys have all it takes to produce tangible results in today’s game hence after 90 minutes, the best team will emerge.
He also remarked that the qualification journey towards the up coming world cup quali- fiers is still wide open for them despite the recently stamped defeat which was the first for Stars to succumb in the ongoing contest.
“There is strong belief in the team among players that they can make it in Benin and the most important thing is to take every chance they will be making,” said Poulsen after Fri- day’s encounter.
Prior to that, they outclassed Madagascar 3-2 at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in the city to pocket crucial three points while their opening away fixture of the campaign ended 1-1 against DR Congo.
Stars have one home game remaining versus Democratic Republic of Congo while their other fixture will take them to Madagascar with possible six points from two clashes on the standby ready to be grabbed.
On the other hand, even though they won, Benin coach Michel Dussuyer repeatedly said they will not underestimate Tanzania in today’s battle saying they played very well on Thursday.
He therefore cautioned his players to take the game seriously while insisting that Tanzania have a competitive team capable to create good results any moment into the game.
The other match in group J will see DR Congo who are second on the table with three points taking on bottom placed Madagascar in another tight fixture of the qualifiers.
Madagascar have had a bad nightmare in the unfolding campaign as they have not registered a win in all their three previous matches which has seen them rooted at the base of the table.
In case Madagascar manage to win all their remaining three fixtures, they will reach 9 points and still have a chance to qualify as long as their opponents will be dropping points in the process as such, practically, all four teams in group J have equal chances to qualify.
