CHAN: Ngato praises CAR efforts despite heavy Burkina Faso defeat

Central African Republic head coach Sébastien Ngato has praised his players for the effort they put in despite suffering a 4-2 TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) defeat against Burkina Faso at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium on Tuesday.

After a sluggish start to the tournament, where the Stallions were outplayed in a 2-0 defeat to Tanzania, coach Issa Balbon’s side responded emphatically. Two second-half penalties and an inspired performance from Patrick Malo and Abdoul Baguian helped them outclass a spirited CAR side playing their first-ever CHAN match.

Despite the defeat, Ngato maintained their hopes in the tournament were far from over. “I’m proud of our players. As I said before, this is our first time reaching this level, and we came here to see how things work at this stage,” said Ngatou as quoted by CAFOnline.com.

“The goals we conceded came from our own mistakes. This is football. We’ll continue working ahead of the upcoming matches.”

On whether the defeat ended their campaign to progress in the tournament, Ngato responded: “There are five teams in our group, and this was our first game. Take Burkina Faso, for instance — they lost their first match but won the second. In this group, anything is possible.

“Each team has four games, and this was just our first. It doesn’t mean we’re out of the tournament. We can bounce back and advance. After all, a team once lost 4-0 and still went on to win the tournament — it can happen again.”

He concluded: “We made mistakes due to pressure and tension — maybe because it was our first match. We could’ve done better, but that’s okay.

“We’ll keep working for the upcoming games and see how it goes. The goals we conceded were due to small mistakes, and even though we also scored, what happened was down to some unexpected errors.”

CAR must prepare to meet Madagascar in what now becomes a must-win fixture.