Africa: Mozambique Lead Day of Surprises At Afcon

“It’s an indescribable feeling. It’s my first AFCON and I’m so proud to be here. I am proud of my team. We stood up to Egypt. We want to showcase Mozambican talent to the world. We really believe we will go far, we think big, we know we can beat any team,” he said.

Egypt had come into the tournament in top form, but their coach Rui Vitoria is now sweating on what will be a crucial clash against Ghana next up.

“Mozambique has a solid team, I said it before meeting them and that’s what happened today,” the Portuguese coach said. “They gave us a lot of tactical problems with this low pack. This team has excellent elements in midfield. They found gaps in us and they took advantage of it.

“It’s going to be a different story (against Ghana). We will have to reduce the spaces and be more concentrated because against an experienced team like Ghana, the slightest mistake is paid dearly.”

The Black Stars were left desperately disappointed by their loss, which reignited bad memories of their first round exit in Cameroon.

“We deserved more from the match,” defender Alexander Djiku said. “Just when we were coming into the game, we conceded the second goal, even though we were on top of the game. We didn’t create many chances, we didn’t utilise the few chances we created, it is why we couldn’t win.

“I was in the team during the last AFCON, our elimination in the first round remains the worst memory of my career and I don’t want to relive that.”

Ghana coach Chris Hughton also expressed his bitter disappointment.

“I think it rocked us the goal that we conceded (in the first half) but I thought that we got back into the game and at that stage it looked like we could go on and win it. We are hugely, hugely disappointed with the result,” he said.