CAN 2022: hope and ambitions fuel Cape Verde
Cape Verdeans before facing Cameroon at the Olembé stadium on January 17, 2022. REUTERS - MOHAMED ABD EL GHANY
Text by: Nicolas Bamba Follow
3 mins
Third in group A behind Cameroon and Burkina Faso, Cape Verde is waiting for the end of the first round to find out if it will be present in the round of 16.
For that, he must be in the top four third places.
Willis Furtado and his teammates take their troubles patiently while looking further ahead.
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From our special correspondent in Yaoundé,
For the third CAN in their history, the Cape Verdeans discover the system of a competition with 24 teams.
Third in Group A
with 4 points and zero goal difference, they are still in the running for the round of 16.
Indeed, the four best third places will qualify, while the two worst third places will be eliminated.
While the first round is over for groups A, B and C, Cape Verde is well placed.
Malawi scored as many points, while Comoros have 3 points.
This last point is important: it only takes one other team to finish under 4 points, or with 4 points and a negative goal difference, to send the Blue Sharks to the next round.
“
It's stressful, we watch all the matches hoping to pass
”, confides Willis Furtado before training on Wednesday January 19, shortly before the decisive meetings of group D (Egypt-Sudan and Guinea-Bissau-Nigeria).
The Cape Verde striker and his compatriots have reason to believe in it, but only mathematical reality will set them free.
See this post on Instagram
A post shared by @willisfurtado
► Schedule, match results and team standings
“
We are aiming for the quarters, even the halves
”
With a victory (
1-0 against Ethiopia
), a defeat (
0-1 against Burkina Faso
) and a draw (1-1 against Cameroon) in the first round of this
CAN 2022
, "
we could have done better
,” says Willis Furtado. The international, who came from Ivry-sur-Seine in the Paris region and now a player for FK Jerv in Norway, does not forget all these cases of Covid-19 which have caused trouble among Cape Verdeans. He himself tested positive and was absent from the first two match sheets.
“
We managed as best we could. It was very difficult at the beginning because we had a lot of cases. (…) It changed the tactics, we had to change the way we play
, ”recalls the number 15. The result was not totally up to the expectations of the Cape Verdeans, beaten by the Burkinabè in the race for second place in group A (the Stallions took it thanks to their victory in their direct confrontation with the Blue Sharks ). But the knockout stages remain within their reach.
Willis Furtado, 24, hopes to be there, because Cape Verde aims to do better than in its first participation.
In 2013, in South Africa
, the neophytes finished second in their group (behind South Africa and ahead of Morocco and Angola) before falling in the quarter-finals against Ghana.
Willis Furtado wants to "
try to go further
".
“
We are aiming for the quarters, even the semi-finals
”, he assures.
A big project which must first pass the test of the classification of the four best third.
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