AfricaPress-Tanzania: TANZANIA’s senior national footall team are preparing well for a crucial Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers’ match against Equatorial Guinea, which will take place at Estadio de Malabo in Malabo on Thursday.
Taifa Stars’ head coach, Kim Poulsen, stated his charges are prepared to win the match and make the country proud.
He said he needs his players to be on top of their game if they are to get good results against Equatorial Guinea.
“We expect Equatorial Guinea to be tough, but we are preparing well as the aim is to win the game,” he said.
Last week Taifa Stars lost 2-1 to Kenya in an international friendly clash and coach Poulsen said the game helped him a lot in creating combinations and coordination.
He said the game against Kenya was an opportunity for his team to assess their strengths and weaknesses.
He disclosed: “The match against Kenya was an opportunity for us to measure our strengths and weaknesses, I’m confident that we will do well in our game against Equatorial Guinea.”
The coach said he expects to have a full squad this week as foreign-based players join camp.
After the Kenya friendly, coach Poulsen said he will work on improving his team’s defense and on scoring more goals.
“During the friendly match we made some defensive mistakes which cost us, but at the same time, our other challenge was failure to score, something we have to work on,” the Dane disclosed.
He said they played good attacking football and, in the qualifiers’ clash, they want to continue from where the team stopped.
Taifa Stars are expected to play Equatorial Guinea in the 2021 AFCON qualifier at the end of this month.
Stars’ coach maintained that the mission is to see Taifa Stars qualify for AFCON finals for the second time in a row.
Kenya’s Harambee Stars notched the first goal through Erick Kapaito on the 20th minute of the first half.
Taifa Stars equalized 12 minutes later through Ayoub Lyanga and in the second half Harambee Stars’ attacker Hassan Abdallah netted the winner for them on the 59th minute of the game.
