Lesotho confident of upsetting Lone Stars

by Graeme Jackson

Wednesday May 28, 2014. 09:42

Lesotho believe they can overturn a one-goal deficit against Liberia and advance to the next round of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

The Crocodiles host the Lone Stars in Maseru on June 1 in the second leg of their first round AFCON qualifier.

The first leg in Monrovia ended 1-0 in favour of Liberia on May 18, with star striker Anthony Laffor scoring the only goal of the game.

Despite the defeat, Lesotho coach Seephephe Matete was satisfied with the result and believes his side can turn the tie in their favour on home soil.

“We are happy about the result, we did not want to have conceded too many goals and that worked for us, and we will see what to do in the return leg,” said the coach after the first leg match.

“We have great chances of going to the next stage; we will get the needed results against Liberia. The Lone Star has a good team, but they play very slowly. Despite our defensive tactics they could not create many chances [in the first leg].”

Liberia are renowned for being poor travellers and coach Thomas Kojo admitted that he wanted a bigger buffer than 1-0 to take to the second leg. He blamed a lack of preparation time for their underwhelming showing.

“We happy about the result. We did not have much time to prepare for this game. The four foreign-based players we invited came two days [before] the game andyou saw how they played, they actually suffered from fatigue. But we are happy that we got the three points, this is the most important thing for us, we will build on the result in the return leg,” said Kojo.

The winner of the tie between Lesotho and Liberia will face either Kenya or Comoros in the second round.