Head coach of Burkina Faso Brahima Traore insist that his team deserve to go through to the semi final of the U17 Africa Cup of Nations ahead of Nigeria after a 2-1 win yesterday.
His statement came after coach of the Nigerian team Nduka Ugbade lamented missed chances claiming that his team were unlucky not to have won the game as they were better in all areas .
“I am happy with the performance of our players and in such competitions, even if you lose, you gain something by developing the players for the future.”
“Everything worked as we had planned, but we could not score with the chances we had. We paid dearly for that. We learn the lessons and move on,” he said
The win sealed a spot at the World Cup taking place in India for Burkina Faso and Traore, whose team were dominated in terms of chances created and ball possession by Nigeria , said they are proud to go through ahead of Nigeria and deserve their spot.
“It was a heroic match and our players gave everything they had. Qualifying for the semi-finals and the World Cup was one of our goals from the beginning. We had promised the Federation and the Burkinabe people that we would seek to achieve this and also go for our second AFCON title,” the tactician said after the match.
He added; “After our first loss against Mali we were under pressure but we managed to calm down and get back on track to win against Cameroon and then Nigeria who are both considered as favorites in this competition.”
Damian Waziri