Burundi and dr congo eye chan quarter final slot

Burundi and DR Congo clash in match day 3 of group D in the Orange African Nations Championship, South Africa 2014 with the winner assured of a quarter final place. A draw in the match scheduled for Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane on Wednesday 22ND January suits Burundi more and should that be the case DR Congo will have to wait for results from the Gabon vs Mauritania match to find out who joins Burundi for the knock-out stage..

CHAN debutants Burundi opened their campaign with a goalless draw against the Panthers of Gabon before clinching a last minute gasp win over fellow debutants Mauritania. It has been an impressive start to the Swallows of Burundi’s debut and they will be fired-up to make it even more memorable with a quarter- final berth. The Leopards of DR Congo, inaugural winners of CHAN in 2009 edged Mauritania 1-0 in the first match but came unstuck against Gabon who beat them by the same score line (1-0) to leave the Congolese on three points going into the last group game.

The stage is set for a fascinating encounter with Congolese likely to get forward and offensive against a Burundi side that was enterprising and playing some good football. Burundi coach Naseem Lofty said they have worked on being more alert and solid in defence. He believes this charges were ill-disciplined in their defending and perform better against DR Congo than they did against Mauritania.

“The two goals we conceded in our last match against Mauritania were strange and we have to avoid this in our next match. We need to be disciplined in defence because l know DR Congo will attack our goal,” said Lofty. “We are happy the goals are coming, but we need to protect the back.” Lofty went on to say his team is still the underdog going into this match but I believe it is an adventure for us and we are going to work very hard and we are going to fight to win the match. We have had good times and not so good times but I still believe we still have some ambition and want to do well in this competition “Lofty said.

Meanwhile DR Congo will welcome back coach Santos Mutubile who served his suspension for being sent-off in the first match against Mauritania. The teams have only met on one previous occasion almost 40 years ago, when DR Congo were known as Zaire and triumphed 1-0 in July 1976. DR Congo has never failed to make it out of the group stage since winning the first CHAN 2009 in Ivory Coast and thereafter the quarterfinals in the second edition in 2011 held in Sudan.

DR Congo versus Burundi is at Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, kick-off is at 19h00 local time.

Confederation of African Football (CAF) News