Afcon 2023: Brentford’s Yoane Wissa hails DR Congo’s ‘togetherness’ after win over Egypt

Brentford forward Yoane Wissa hailed the “togetherness” of his DR Congo team after they reached the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) quarter-finals in Ivory Coast by beating Egypt on penalties.

The Leopards looked impressive as they held Egypt to a 1-1 draw in San Pedro, with DR Congo goalkeeper Lionel Mpasi scoring the 18th penalty of a tense shoot-out to eliminate the seven time Afcon champions 8-7 on spot kicks.

“No team will let us win, so togetherness has been the difference,” Wissa told BBC Sport Africa.

“We are all together. We have the same targets. We know if we want to achieve something we need to work very hard because it’s not going to be easy.”

DR Congo, who will meet Guinea in the last eight on Friday in Abidjan, have found goals hard to come by so far at this Afcon. Despite having numerous chances, they have found the net only three times.

But Wissa, who sent in deflected cross from which Meschak Elia gave DR Congo the lead against Egypt and put them ahead for the first time in their campaign, says he is proud of his team’s resilience and the way they closed out their first win of the finals, having drawn three times in the group stage.

“We got there in the end,” he added. “I am happy because we fought. We fought a lot against a very strong team.

“I am very, very grateful for what we’ve done and for what happened.

“It has been a long journey since day one. We need to enjoy the rest time and then look forward to playing in the quarter-final.