Tunisia’s head coach, Jalel Kadri, has spoken about the eye-opening matches of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Cote d’Ivoire so far.
In particular, Kadri has noted the impressive performances of Mozambique and Equatorial Guinea against Egypt and Nigeria, respectively, as well as Ghana’s shocking defeat to Cape Verde in their opening matches.
Speaking at a pre-match conference on Monday, Kadri emphasized that playing against Namibia in the opening match was in no way an advantage, as the tournament had already shown that there were no small teams in Africa.
Tunisia, the 2004 champions, will face Namibia in their opening Group E match on Tuesday.
Kadri has warned that Namibia is a serious opponent and that his team doesn’t have any easy team.
He has also urged his team to show respect to their opponents and play to their best ability.
The coach has acknowledged that the results in the opening rounds have shown that there is no small team in Africa.
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Tunisia is making their 21st appearance in the competition, with this edition being the 16th in a row – a record in the history of the tournament so far.
However, Tunisia has failed to win any of their last four opening matches of the AFCON, a statistic that the coach will have to discard from his mind.
When asked about his tournament objectives, Kadri was modest in his response, saying that the team had prepared enough to go as far as possible in the competition.
He stated that they would try to go as far as possible in the competition and that they had teams with good quality.
He added that they must be respectful to all opponents as there are Africa’s best teams present.
He concluded by saying that his team would do their best in every match and take it game by game.
