“Mali Wasn’t an Easy Team,” Says Ivory Coast’s Coach

It took a 76th-minute effort from Wilfried Zaha to get The Elephants marching to the quarter-finals and Ivory Coast’s Ibrahim Kamara admits Mali were a tough nut to crack.

The Crystal Palace forward found space to bury a neat effort having been set up from close to the centre box.

Mali had only themselves to blame for letting begging scoring opportunities pass by in a heated encounter and gaffer Ibrahim concedes the Malians weren’t easy to break.

“We are celebrating this win because it was not easy against Mali, a very good team. We let the storm pass during the first half before we reorganized in the second and this had an effect,” he said.

Assigned to assemble a side for the 2021 events, Ibrahim has refused to clearly outline Ivory Coast’s priority target in the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations.

“It’s a competition where there are seven games to play and we played four. Now, there are three games left, the next one against Algeria, for which we are going to prepare like all the others.”

“I have a mission entrusted to me to know how to prepare a team for 2021 but, there are games that we have to play and we play them all the way,” he says.