CHAN: Madagascar played strong match and deserved to beat Tanzania – Rakotondrabe

Madagascar head coach Romuald Rakotondrabe believes his side deserved to get something from their 2-1 TotalEnergies CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN) defeat against hosts Tanzania at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium on Saturday.

Forward Francis Mzize was the star of the evening, netting both goals that sent the home fans into raptures and ensured the Taifa Stars remained one of the competition’s form sides. The win also ensured Taifa Stars booked their place in the quarterfinals after back-to-back wins.

“It was a tough defeat against Tanzania, and this is football,” said Rakotondrabe after the game as quoted by CAFOnline.com. “We played a strong match, but not like our opponent Tanzania who scored the first goal, and it was surprising. Football is always difficult.”

He added: “We lost the first two matches. This result is, in fact, painful, but there are still two matches ahead of us. We will work on motivating our players for the coming games.”

Mauritania’s earlier 1-0 win over Central African Republic put them in pole position for second place, but with Burkina Faso holding a game in hand, the scrap for the final quarter-final slot remains alive going into the group’s last fixtures.