Burkina Faso boss Kamou Malo vowed on Tuesday that his team would stick to their playing style despite facing Africa’s strongest team Senegal in the semi-final of the Africa Cup of Nations.
The sides clash on Wednesday night at the Stade Ahmadou Ahidjo in Yaoundé.
Senegal – under Aliou Cissé – go into the tie as favourites. Not only were they the beaten finalists at the Cup of Nations in 2019 but they entered the 2022 tournamment at 20 in the rankings of world football’s governing body Fifa.
Burkina Faso are 40 places lower down that particular food chain but despite the gap, Malo insisted his players would maintain the attitude that had propelled them to the brink of the country’s first final since 2013 when they lost to a Nigeria team under the legendary Stephen Keshi.
They have impressed with their defensive solidity and their ability to keep possession or break swiftly on counter-attacks.
Power
“It’s not a secret that Senegal have a big armada and you have to test yourself when you play a team like that,” said the 58-year-old former police officer. “But we will keep our identity and our style.
“We have a young team and that can bring vitality but that can also bring mistakes at critical moments. Games like these will help to give them experience so there will be fewer errors.”
Hosts Cameroon take on Egypt in the other semi-final at the Olembé Stadium on Thursday night.
The arena was cleared for the match after local fixers and the Cameroon government assured Caf - the overall organisers – that safety measures would be tightened up to prevent the string of events that led to the fan stampede which left eight people dead and 38 injured just before Cameroon’s last-16 tie against Comoros on 24 January.
Sub-plots
Both Cameroon and Egypt are led by Portuguese coaches - Toni Conceicao and Carlos Queiroz respectively – and the nationalities of the coaches as well as the political events in Burkina Faso have emerged as some of the intriguing sub-plots in the latter stages of the competition.
Malo dedicated Burkina Faso’s quarter-final victory over Tunisia to his compatriots who had just experienced a military coup and the overthrow of President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré over his apparent failure to deal with a jihadist insurgency.
Burkina Faso was suspended from the African Union on Monday because of the takeover.
"We have been dealing with this terrorism for a number of years now,” said Malo on Tuesday. “And it continues to plunge our people into mourning, so our objective is to give them something to smile about.
"People are already asking me to bring back the trophy and that is what we would love to do."
Achievements
Cissé, a former Senegal international, retained his job despite losing the 2019 final.
The 45-year-old has steered his country to next month’s play-off with Egypt for a place at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar as well as the unprecedented feat for the national team of successive semi-final appearances at the Cup of Nations.
“I have lots of respect for Cissé,” added Malo. It is a good moment for African coaches to come to the fore.
"I would encourage those running federations in Africa to recruit local coaches. It was a risk for us in Burkina Faso but the results speak for themselves," he said.
"We should have more confidence in ourselves and give local coaches the same opportunities.”
