Here are the comments from Alain Giresse, Mohamed Diamé, and Sabri Lamouchi after the Ivory Coast-Senegal match:
Alain Giresse (Lions coach): “We were taken by surprise by this penalty scored in the 2nd minute and this goal 10 minutes later. We negotiated badly and missed our start to the match. This is paid in cash. Now, to say that this defeat should cause us to throw in the towel. No! We will try to work on rectifying what needs to be corrected before the return match.”
Mohamed Diamé (captain of the Lions): “It’s a difficult defeat to admit. We never thought that would be the case. We were picked cold. Which disrupted the rest of our meeting a little. Now we will try to work and this goal can give us hope.”
Sabri Lamouchi (Elephants coach): “I think the essentials have been done. It was about winning by a large margin and we managed to do it. Even if we could score more. Three goals to one is good. But I regret a little the way my players finished the game. Because they relaxed and that allowed this good Senegalese team to score a goal. We had to concentrate for 90 minutes.”
