AFCON 2023: Emerse Fae Promises to “keep it home”

#Emerse Fae, head coach of The Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire, is determined to defeat the Super Eagles of Nigeria in the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) final

#The highly anticipated match will take place at the Alassane Quattara Stadium in Abidjan on Sunday, February 11

• Fae said he would analyze Nigeria’s gameplay and strategise accordingly, aiming to overturn their previous group stage defeat to the Super Eagles The host country beat the Leopards of the Democratic Republic of Congo in their semi-final clash 1-0 to set up the epic clash with the Super Eagles.

Speaking at today’s presser, Fae said he would analyse the Super Eagles and devise a strategy to defeat the three-time AFCON champions.

“We will analyse Nigeria, even though we played them in the group stage, we will see the strategy to implement for the final.”

As a reminder, the Super Eagles defeated Cote d’Ivoire 1-0 when both teams met in the group stage earlier in the competition.

Winning the AFCON will be an extraordinary achievement for the 40-year-old French-born former Ivorian international, who played for his country in the 2006 final albeit on the losing side.

He had been assistant to veteran French coach Jean-Louis Gasset over the last 18 months but was thrust into the top job when Gasset was sacked at the end of a disastrous group round at the tournament.

“We had difficult days emotionally and mentally and we came through the back door,” admitted Fae. “Losing 4-0 at home was terrible, and then afterwards we had to wait. Honestly, it was very difficult to work, to heal the wounds while crossing your fingers.”

Tagged by some media professionals as ”the special one”, Fae wasn’t so comfortable with the show-name.

“No, no, no, that’s not true,” he replied this Saturday when asked about the tag first used for Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho. “It has been a collective to get us all here.”

Fae had always intended to coach after his club career, which included a brief spell at English club Reading, came to a premature end because of injury. He worked at Clermont Foot and Nice before Gasset asked him to join the Ivorian staff.

“It was difficult for us to imagine we’d get to the final but now we are here and on merit. Now we have the opportunity to win the cup at our home. We’ll be going all out to do so.” Be told sportglitz.