Head coach of the Equatorial Guinea side, Jean Paul has admitted that his team stands no chance of qualification at the ongoing Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (AWCON) in Ghana.
Following two losses and -11 goals difference in two games, the two time champions have resigned to fate and are now looking forward to the future.
“We play our last match tomorrow and we’re out of here. I can boldly say that we are out of the competition but concerning tomorrow’s match we are going to play,” coach Jean Paul said in his pre-match conference ahead of the game against Nigeria.
“As I always say, we never give up until it’s 90 mins and we cannot declare a winner until the final whistle is blown.”
Considering that the Super Falcons will need a convincing win against the Equatorial Guineans to secure passage into the semi-final, Jean Paul was asked if he intends to play the role of a spoiler in Saturday’s match against the defending champions.
“A competition remains a competition,” he said. “I respect Nigeria so much because it is a great footballing nation but I must say that no coach will go on the pitch and expect to lose a match but if Nigeria wins, it is a plus for them to continue in the competition.”
On his plans for this current team he said: “my objective for this team is to secure the future. We’ve seen this team perform compared to the previous team and we know it’s a different one. We know Equatorial Guinea to be one of the forces in Africa but now its not going as planned. One of the aims for this team is to bring back the glory the team had sometime ago.”
“I just need two months of work because I know my team and I know myself. This is a young team with abilities and against South Africa I was very happy of the team’s performance because this is a young team that is trying to get to the top,” he concluded.
