Before Mali played Tunisia in their 2016 African Nations Championship (CHAN) quarterfinal, their coach Djibril Drame had declined to say a word about his opponents from the Maghreb.
Drame then said, “I can’t tell you the weakness or strong points of my opponents, that would be warning them, but I have a game plan to get results off them.”
Indeed Drame had a plan as Mali knocked the 2011 winners out of the tournament 2-1 on Sunday at the Kigali Regional Stadium in Nyamirambo.
Tunisia got into an early lead after 15 minutes when Mohamed Ali Monser headed home Saad Bguir’s cross from the left.
Tables then changed in the second half as Tunisia struggled to match Mali’s physical and running game. Essifi Hichem handled the ball in the forbidden area and Aliou Dieng leveled matters, it was at that point that Drame knew it was Mali’s game to lose.
“After the equaliser, we knew we had a physiological edge over our opponents, it was at that point that we knew we had won the game and worked for the winner,” Drame said at the post match press conference.
“When a team has been leading and they lose that lead, they are destabilised mentally and you have to take advantage of that, that what we did,” he added.
With ten minutes to full time, Abdoulaye Diarra broke away from Tunisia’s loose defense to shoot past Rami Jeridi for Mali’s winner. That win booked Mali a date with Ivory Coast on Thursday at the same venue.
“Tunisia was one of the best and strongest teams at the tournament, we needed to do a lot to go past them. Next we play Ivory Coast and we shall study and analyse their style and prepare my team accordingly,” Drame said.
Mali together with their semifinal opponents Ivory Coast are both appearing at their third Chan tournament, it’s the first time the two countries are playing at the semi-final stage, the former getting a step better than their quarterfinal finish two years ago in South Africa.
