Mauritania aiming to bounce back against Angola

Mauritania coach Corentin Martins believes his team must forget their disappointing debut in the Africa Cup of Nations as they prepare to face Angola.

Mauritania were thrashed 4-1 by Mali on Monday and now face an Angola side buoyed by their 1-1 draw with Tunisia in their opening Group E fixture.

“The Angola match is very important for our journey. We noticed through their performances that they are a strong team on the collective and individual level,” Martins said in quotes reported by Goal.com “We have the desire to achieve a great result.”

Speaking about the loss to Mali, Martins added: “We had fear of the unknown because we are in the first match of a huge competition. We have to forget the Mali result and look forward to Angola.”

Angola coach Srdjan Vasiljevic was delighted by his side’s well-deserved draw with Tunisia, Djlama’s 73rd-minute equaliser cancelling out Youssef Msakni’s first-half penalty.

“We got a good result after enormous difficulties in the preparation period. We want to play good football and compete with the best African teams,” Vasiljevic said.

FourFourTwo Staff

FourFourTwo was launched in 1994 on the back of a World Cup that England hadn’t even qualified for. It was an act of madness… but it somehow worked out. Our mission is to offer our intelligent, international audience access to the game’s biggest names, insightful analysis... and a bit of a giggle. We unashamedly love this game and we hope that our coverage reflects that.