Guinea national football team head coach, Mohamed Kanfory Bangoura is positive about the general performance of his team despite the failure to reach the finals.
During a post match press conference held at Amahoro stadium on Wednesday evening, he stated;
I am proud of the team and the players. They have fought a big fight. Being our first time in this tournament, we remain positive about the future.
Guinea lost 5-4 in the semifinal penalty shootout to the Democratic Republic of Congo after normal and extra time had ended in a one all draw.
He however cast the loss to fatigue having traveled from Rubavu where they had the quarter finals to Kigali and having to play on natural grass from the astro turf surface.
We have played on natural grass for the first time in the tournament (in the semi finals) because all our matches have been on the astro turf. Besides,we did not have enough rest prior to this match.
On penalties he believes luck was not on that side;
Penalties are a lottery. In this kind of competition, you expect everything including penalties. Our objective was to fight for second place.
Congo is a very experienced team. We started with a defensive strategy but in the second half attacked in numbers after studying the opponent
The second semi-final will be played on Thursday between Cote D’Ivoire and Mali at Kigali Regional stadium, Nyamirambo.