Ethiopia Coach Cries Over Missed Chances

Ethiopia national team head coach, Abraham Mebratu, was left a disappointed man after seeing his charges played to a goalless draw against Lesotho in their FIFA World Cup preliminary round first leg tie played at Bahir Dar Stadium.

The Walia Ibex had territorial dominance but could not turn their possession into goals.

Ethiopia lacked the cutting edge after drawing rings around the Lesotho defenders on many occasions.

They were also unlucky after hitting the woodwork two times- Shemeles Bekele crashed the bar with a thunderous free-kick and striker Baye Bela also had his strike hit the woodwork.

“We created many scoring chances. Nevertheless, we could not execute the chances we had. That has been the biggest problem of our team in recent times,” said Mebratu.

He added: “I believe we should work more on this. I am elated with the performance of the boys today regardless of not getting the win.”

The result Basotho in the driving seat for their return encounter in Maseru on Sunday where they will be hoping to win and go through on aggregate to the group stage of the African preliminaries.

It should be recalled that three years ago, Lesotho suffered a surprise goal aggregate defeat to go out in the first stage of the World Cup qualifiers while Ethiopia advanced to the second leg of knockout matches where they lost to Congo.