Tanzania midfielder Feisal Salum has expressed optimism about his outfit chances ahead of their game against Nigeria at the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations.
The Taifa Stars takes on the Super Eagles in a highly competitive Group C clash on Tuesday, with both teams seeking for a flying start to the tournament, being held in Morocco.
For Salum, his outfit can carry the momentum and confidence gained from their Africa Nations Championship (CHAN) performances into the AFCON 2025 in Morocco.
Tanzania has yet to record a win against Nigeria at the Africa Cup of Nations and will be seeking to break the jinx this time.
According to the Azam FC playmaker, the demanding nature of the CHAN tournament has played a major role in preparing the squad mentally and tactically for AFCON.
“Everyone is really motivated after what we did in CHAN,” Salum said. “Those were very tough matches, almost similar to AFCON in intensity. This time it will be even harder because we’ll be facing the best African players from all over the world. But CHAN helped us build strong belief and a fighting spirit.”
“We have learnt a lot especially from Ivory Coast last time out. We need to give 100 percent in every game, there is very little room for mistakes and you must play with the highest standards of discipline,” he added.
” With these lessons, we want to do better and there is confidence in the group that we can achieve our minimum target. We have a very strong playing unit and an experienced coach in Gamondi and we believe these are the right ingredients for us to do well.”
