The Zebras hunt for an AFCON match win continues after going down 3-0 yesterday to Senegal in a competitive Total Energies CAF Africa Cup of Nations finals encounter.
The Zebras are making their second appearance at the competition after 13 years. The local boys will now regroup and shift focus to Benin on Tuesday. Speaking during a press briefing, The Zebras coach, Morena Ramoreboli said they were playing against a mature team, and knew that inner spaces were closed, so they went wide and increased speed.
He explained that the third goal they went wide, and before The Zebras could recover in the central space, Senegal had already played the ball. “When we tried to close the inner spaces where we knew Sadio Mané and opposite winger will be trying to go into, we did exactly that. The problem was dealing with the full backs, when they were climbing too high, sometimes we were late to trap them into our defensive zones. That is why they managed to score from crosses, to be honest they did not give us a problem in the central space because that is where we knew they wanted to push hard. Our other biggest problem was how we shifted to the wider spaces, that is where they played quickly, because they knew were delayed to cover those spaces, and we ended up conceding” Ramoreboli said.
He said his players did well, and he is happy that Senegal was not able to dominate the central space. He said as the ball was going wide, they needed to organize the central space, and when that happened, the Zebras chased the line forgetting that there are other players coming in late. He said those were lessons. Ramoreboli said those are some of the things that contributed to the Zebras loss.
Match Statistics:
Botswana: Possession: 32 percent, Senegal 67.8 percent.
Shot Attempts: Botswana 0: 28 Senegal.
Yellow Cards: Senegal: 1: 2 Botswana.
Corner Kicks: Senegal 7: 2 Botswana.
Saves: Senegal 0: 14 Botswana.
