Head coach of Ethiopia, Webetu Abate says a draw is a decent consolation as compared to a loss in their Group A game of the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship (CHAN) on Saturday.
This was after his side’s toughly contested 0-0 stalemate at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers, where Abate congratulated his players for a good performance.
“This match was not easy. We lacked cohesion. It is not the result we came for, but if we did not win, we should not have lost” said the coach.
Held to draw by a very stubborn Mozambican team, Ethiopia’s performance was not their best as compared to some of their previous outings.
“If I have to summarize this match, I would say that it is a sub-par performance. We showed that we can do great things but we lacked efficiency”.
“I have a young squad that I travelled with. Many of the key players stayed at home because they were injured. This CHAN tournament is an opportunity for them to take leadership in the team”, said the coach.
On facing the tournament hosts, Abate had this to say: “During the African Cup of Nations, we faced Cameroon in Olembe in the group stage. We lost the match 4-1 but the boys were not afraid. I hope that will be the case again on Tuesday”.
With one point to their name, Ethiopia shares the second spot in group A with Mozambique, just behind Algeria who collected three points after their 1-0 win over Libya who currently occupy the last spot of the group.
