Ivorian midfielder Franck Kessie was on the mic of kick442.com after the two times African champions escaped a scare from a youthful Malian side, courtesy a scrappy but effective goal from Wilfred Zaha, deep, deep into the second half of that encounter.
The 23-year-old emphasized on little celebrations from the team and more work” we are going to play the quarterfinals of the AFCON, we are very happy but it would not last. By tomorrow morning, we would start working again”.
The AC Milan –full package of dominance and sher force, made it clear that there are no small teams in the continent: “it is a competition. It is the Nations cup, practically we don’t have bad teams — and all the teams are good. Today we knew the difficulties we would face against a very good Malian side that finished 1st in their group, we knew that it wasn’t going to be easy, and it then came to the mental strength and then little by little we succeeded”. The central midfielder added, “we did not do well in the first half, but in the second half we woke up and pushed harder and then made the difference by scoring first”.
Franck Yannick Kessie, taken part in his second AFCON made it clear that players should do their best even when played out of position -” after the selection you don’t have time to adapt because the space between games are short and we have to play at the highest level. We have to try to get adapted wherever the coach wants us to play”.
“That is what we are trying to do, so we cannot say no, I don’t play here or there”.
The qualification of the Ivory Coast now sets us up for a crunching quarterfinals clash against the desert Foxes of Algeria. In Kessie’s own words, that is trouble for another day after they have celebrated the victory against Mali: “Algeria is a good team, but for now we would celebrate the victory of this game this evening and tomorrow think of Algeria”.
The player with over 27 caps under his belt congratulated CAF for the increase of teams in the football jamboree- “the increase of teams to 24 does a whole lot of good because we discover other teams with good talented players and they are no more small teams, and any team can make the difference at every moment. I think it’s a good thing for Africa”.
Kessie then concluded with a striking statement, not underestimating any team “In this competition, everybody can win”. Ivory Coast play against Algeria on Thursday the 11th, 6:00 pm local time.
GIOVANNI WANNEH.
