Mali U-17 head coach, Soumaila Coulibaly has stated the team’s ambition to win the TotalEnergies U-17 Africa Cup of Nations following their 1-0 win over Burkina Faso in Group C.
Mamadou Doumbia scored the only of the game to give the West Africans early control of the three-team group.
Mali are two-time AFCON U17 champions, winning it back-to-back in 2015 and 2017.
After Monday’s game, Coulibaly highlighted some of the flaws in his team’s victory and demands improvement in their next match on Thursday against another two-time champion, Cameroon.
FULL-TIME! ⏰
Mamadou Doumbia’s goal is the difference for the Eagles! ???? #TotalEnergiesAFCONU17 pic.twitter.com/Ewso97uXUk
— #TotalEnergiesAFCONU17 2023 ???? (@CAF_Online) May 1, 2023
“The ambition remains that we are here to battle for the title. We will work hard, keep winning and go all the way,” Coulibaly said after the game.
“In the first half after we scored, we took control of the game well. We could have scored some more goals. In the second half, Burkina Faso played the long ball and we had to be really good in defending them.
“We lost a bit of our identity in the second half against Burkina Faso but we will try to improve this in the next match. It will be a difficult game but we will be ready.”
Group C was reduced to three teams after South Sudan were disqualified over five players failing MRI tests ahead of Saturday’s opening ceremony.
