Somalia’s head coach, Nur Mohamed Amin, has lamented the mistakes that contributed to their 2-0 loss to hosts Algeria in the TotalEnergies U17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) opener on Saturday night at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers.
Algeria defeated the debutants in their first ever encounter in Continental football, thanks to goals in each half from skipper Moslem Anatouf.
“We wanted to win the first game against Algeria, but football is a sport with three outcomes: win, loss, or draw.” “Algeria won, and that is football,” remarked the tactician.
“We saw some mistakes that we will try to correct and win the next game.” After the game, the strategist added, “Our ambition is to go for victory in the next assignment.”
Nur also stated that his players’ inability to train together for an extended length of time contributed to their failure, but that they are gaining synergy as the days pass.
“All of our players are students who we chose from school tournaments.” They didn’t get many opportunities to play friendly matches, and we were only together for three months for preparation,” the tactician explained.
Somalia’s next match is against Congo on Tuesday, and another defeat will end their chances of making the last eight.