Da Rosa: Mauritania in good shape for AFCON

by Graeme Jackson

Thursday Jan 06, 2022. 15:00

Mauritania coach Didier Gomes Da Rosa has stated that his team is in good shape ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations.

The AFCON tournament kicks off this weekend, with Cameroon taking on Burkina Faso in the opening match on Sunday evening.

Mauritania, who will be appearing in their second Nations Cup after their maiden showing in 2019, will open their Group F campaign on Wednesday 12 January with a clash against debutants Gambia in Limbe.

This will be followed by games against heavyweights Tunisia and Mali on January 16 and 20 respectively.

Da Rosa was appointed as Mauritania’s coach only last month, having been at Tanzanian giants Simba SC before ‘Al Murabitun’ came calling, and he has overseen a training camp in the United Arab Emirates to tune up for the AFCON.

“The preparations have been very good, and we have already played two friendly matches against Burkina Faso and Gabon. Yes, we have to correct some things, but generally we are satisfied with several aspects of the team,” Da Rosa told CAF.

“We can do many good things offensively and still need to tighten defensively. We will be ready for the AFCON 2021 because we know what is at stake.”

The Mauritania coach is hoping to lead the team out of the group stage – something they failed to achieve on debut in Egypt in 2019.

“We are hungry to make it out of the group and battle in the knockout stage,” he concluded.