The Eagles punched their ticket into the next round of the 35th edition of the AFCON in the North African nation without winning a single game in Group A. Mali drew all their three matches to garner three points, and finish behind hosts Morocco, who amassed 10 points.
Mali kicked off their campaign with a 1-1 draw against Zambia, before registering a 1-1 draw against Morocco. In their final group game, Mali dominated Comoros but ended the game with a 0-0 outcome.
Mali must be more efficient
“It feels weird honestly, because as coach, you want to win games, you want to do it also for the public, and it is not that we didn’t play well, we scored two goals in three games, one penalty and one on normal play,” said Saintfiet after the game at Mohammed V Stadium in Casablanca.
“Everyone talks of how we have a good combination of football, but we have to be more efficient in front of goal, and that is something we have to work on before the coming game.”
He added: “First of all, in the first half we played quite well with a lot of ball possession, we dominated the game, and played nice combination of football, but second half we lost the focus, I think there was fatigue, we had only played two days ago against Morocco in Rabat and we had to travel back here.
“A lot of my players were tired, and at the end it was even more dangerous for us because if we conceded a goal, it was game over, but at the end I am happy we qualified, and now we have to analyse things, we have five days between the next game, so the players can recover, and we have to be ready for the next phase.”
Asked why Mali struggled to break down Comoros, the Belgian coach explained: “We did superbly well in the first half but could not score, but in the second half we lost control ourselves.
“We started having risky defence line, giving the balls away to the opponent, but my goalkeeper did well, he was there, when the team made mistakes, he was there to help, and that is very important in my team, everyone plays his role.”
On whether the substitution of Tottenham midfielder Yves Bissouma was due to the previous injury, he responded: “Yeah, he didn’t train for a long period, he has now trained for a week, we gave him 60 minutes against Morocco, and now again it was discussed he doesn’t play to the end.
“We couldn’t play him to the end because we could not risk recurring the injury, and we are also building him up slowly for the next round of matches.”
There was late drama in the game, after Mali were reduced to 10-men. Substitute Amadou Haidara was shown a straight red card for a dangerous challenge. Comoros pushed forward in the closing moments, but Mali held firm to see out the draw.
Mali will await to know their next opponent whom they will face in the Round of 16 on Saturday, January 3 at Mohammed V Stadium.
