AfricaPress-Tanzania: TAIFA Stars Head Coach Etienne Ndayiragije lauded fighting spirit of his charges despite failing to advance to Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) quarters in Cameroon.
The country’s envoys produced a high class performance during their crucial group D last fixture against Guinea on Wednesday night at Reunification Stadium in Douala and the 2-2 draw helped the West Africa nation to sail to the quarters.
It was just unfortunate for the Tanzanian envoys to fail to progress into the quarterfinals of the competition as they put in all to earn that slot but, the end product was a replica of 2009 when they got eliminated at the same stage with the same points and accommodating the same place.
In his post-match briefing, Ndayiragije was full praise of his men who sacrificed every drop of their sweat on the day for the sake of getting good results.
“As a team, we have improved a lot basing on the displayed performance. During our first game against Zambia, we played very well in the opening stages but after conceding, morale dropped. “Today (Wednesday), even though we conceded early, the boys kept pushing until we equalised and sourced another goal to lead 2-1 but, lack of concentration enabled the Guineans to settle the score,” he said.
Again, the coach partly blamed the referee for awarding a spot kick early into the match of which he said came from nowhere.
His midfielder Feisal Salum narrated that despite exiting prematurely; they have learned something from the competition which will be vital to them in upcoming contests.
“The results were not what we wanted as we really wanted to win but we just thank God for everything and the good thing is that we have learned a lot putting in mind that most of the players in this squad are new and were making their debut in big tournament,” he said.
On his part, Taifa Stars shot stopper Aishi Manula said they were just unfortunate not to penetrate into the last eight as they played good football worth sending them to the next round.
“I think Tanzanians wherever that are have seen how we performed today (Wednesday) but, it was a tough game since our opponents also wanted to get through using the same path. As players, we did our best to win,” Manula remarked.
Also, Baraka Majogoro who scored a thunderous equaliser courtesy of his long range strike said even though they lost the chance to venture into the quarterfinals, they have gained exposure of how it feels to play in such elite tournament.
Meanwhile, the last eight CHAN fixtures have been unveiled whereby Guinea will face Rwanda, Morocco versus Zambia, DR Congo will take on hosts Cameroon while Mali will face off Congo.
