Mali U-17 manager Soumaila Coulibaly says his team is ready to face Morocco in the semi-finals of the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations after their quarter-final victory over Congo on Thursday.
Goals from Ange Tia, Mamadou Doumbia and Mahamoud Barry got the job done and gave them one of the four spots for African teams at the FIFA U-17 World Cup. Morocco meanwhile thumped tournament hosts Algeria 3-0 in the earlier game on Wednesday.
Despite Mali’s progress and prospect of lifting a record third U-17 AFCON title, Coulibaly asserted his players are yet to reach the level he desires of them.
“The first objective was to do everything to qualify for the World Cup and now this is achieved. We will now prepare for the semi-final and then seek to win the title,” Coulibaly said. “Once again, we will give a good account of ourselves to win the title,” the tactician said after guiding his team to the victory over Congo.
“We will prepare and plan well against Morocco. We already know a bit about Morocco and they know us too so it will not be an easy match.
“We watched Congo against Senegal and Algeria and we just needed to impose our style of play. We did well, but we still need to work because we are yet to reach the technical levels that I would want us to.”
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Mali secure their qualification to the U17 FIFA World Cup after booking their spot in the 2023 #TotalEnergiesAFCONU17 semi-finals ???? pic.twitter.com/qPASzK3QSd
— #TotalEnergiesAFCONU17 2023 ???? (@CAF_Online) May 11, 2023
The other semi-final will be between Senegal and Burkina Faso.
