Cogolese coach Florent Ibenge has hailed his charges after a mouth watering semi final clash against Guine at Amahoro.

The coach said that he had to employ a lot of pre penalty talks to his players and ensured they allayed a lot of fear as they faced the Syli National of Guinea in the penalty spots.

He said Guinea possed a strong challenge to them saying it was a difficult match.

‘Guinea is a strong team and as I had said they play beautiful football,they play like the Brazilians that’s why they are referred to as the Brazilians of Africa,it was a tough match’ The Congolese coach said.

He said he is not worried of the absence of experienced defender Padou Mpunga who will miss the final after being booked in the macth.

‘We have a total of 23 players in each position and all of them are good players,both Mali or Ivory Coast are good players,we can not underrate the team.’

The coach said he will not only rely on this squad for the AFCON qualifiers as this is a different tournament altogether. ‘I will mix players both from the CHAN and from outside’

He said the match was so tight after Guinea equalized but was happy that the players showed character and strength heading to the penalties.

Congo will meet the winner of the other semi final clash between Ivory Coast and Mali with Guinea waiting for the loser of the clash.

Mali takes on Ivorycoast tomorrow at 4pm in Stade Kigali in Nyamirambo.

Austin Oduor

talking African football