CHAN: Doula explains Niger’s early exit at group stages

Niger national team head coach Harouna Doula Gabde has expressed satisfaction with collective and individual progress of his players despite going out of the TotalEnergies CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN) in East Africa at the group stages.

Despite holding South Africa t0 a 0-0 draw in their Group C fixture on Friday, Niger failed to progress as they have only amassed one point from three matches and remained rooted at the bottom of the pile. They lost 2-0 against Uganda, 1-0 against Guinea and picked their first point so far in the CHAN following a 0-0 draw against Central African Republic.

“We started poorly against Guinea, improved against Uganda, and today we were more solid defensively. Playing against teams like South Africa and Algeria is always a challenge, but we are leaving here with important lessons for the future of Nigerien football,” Doula told CAFOnline.com.

“This is a team in transition. Compared to the previous edition, where we reached the semi-finals, this is practically a new team. Only three players remained from that campaign. We are building for the future, and this competition served as an experience-building opportunity for these young players.”

Against South Africa, he praised the progress of his young team by saying: “The first satisfaction is seeing the overall behavior of the group. We were well-organized defensively and managed to contain one of the group’s favorites, like South Africa.”

Niger will wind up their preliminary matches with a fixture against Algeria on Monday.