AFCON 2015: Yattara Confident Guinea Can Shock Group Rivals
Guinea, the surprise package of the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, is brimming with confidence ahead of the 2015 tournament in Equatorial Guinea. Despite being forced to play all their home games in Morocco due to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, the Syli National secured qualification and are now eyeing an upset in Group D, where they will face Cameroon, Ivory Coast, and Mali.
Speaking to foot224.com, Guinean forward Yamine Mohamed Yattara welcomed the tough draw:
“I think it’s just happiness because we players talked about it among ourselves. It’s a draw we wanted, there are countries we wanted to face. We know Cameroon and Ivory Coast are African giants… but it’s a very good thing to play against these teams to really know what our level is.”
Despite Guinea’s relative lack of experience compared to their heavyweight opponents, Yattara refuses to use that as a crutch:
“There are also quite a few new players in the Cameroon and Ivory Coast teams. That won’t be an excuse for us. We have very good young players who play in good clubs and have good contracts. Now it’s up to us to show ourselves.”
Having built cohesion over the past few years, Yattara believes Guinea can deliver a big surprise at the CAN:
“Even if we haven’t been together for five years, we’ve now played two or three years as a group. We will make a very big surprise during the CAN.”
Guinea will begin their campaign with high hopes of shaking up the so-called group of death and making their mark on African football once again.