The Brave Warriors lost 2-0 to a more physical and determined Guinea in Casablanca, Morocco on Sunday night for an aggregate score of 3-0 in favour of the West Africans in their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifiers second round tie.
The Warriors were reeling from their 1-0 defeat at home on Thursday afternoon in Windhoek and coach Ricardo Mannetti believed it was still possible to defeat Guinea and progress to the third and final round of qualification to Russia 2018, but on Sunday night in Morocco, Guinea were a different side.
“Guinea upped their game and were more physical in their approach, a much better side and improved from Windhoek and we could unfortunately not keep up with them. (They had) too many professionals and very disciplined. No wonder they are doing so well in their Afcon qualifiers,” Mannetti said.
With his side having dropped out of the World Cup race, Mannetti will now set his sights on the 2019 Afcon finals although they still have a lot to do, having lost twice thus far to Senegal at home and Niger away.
“I’m now more convinced that Afcon 2019 is still a good target for us as well but we must still improve in a few but important areas,” he said.
On Sunday night Guinea scored either side of half-time to progress 3-0 on aggregate after they had secured a 1-0 away win in the first leg.
Anderlecht forward Idrissa Sylla put Guinea ahead on 44 minutes, to send the West Africans with a comfortable two-goal aggregate cushion into the break.
And the ‘Syli’ doubled their lead ten minutes from time through Red Bull Salzburg attacking midfielder Naby Keita, who had scored the winner in Windhoek. – nfa.org.na
