Afcon 2023: Ivory Coast boss Fae praises “very united” Nigeria

Ivory Coast coach Emerse Fae has acknowledged the strength of the Nigerian team so far at the Africa Cup of Nations, saying his Ivorian team are recreating the team spirit evident in the Super Eagles.

Hosts Ivory Coast have put behind them their early round woes to emerge confident of success when they take on the Democratic Republic of Congo in Wednesday’s semi-final.

The home side crawled through the group phase in unconvincing fashion, including falling 1-0 to Nigeria, but victory over Senegal and Mali since has handed them renewed confidence as they look to become the first Cup of Nations hosts since Egypt in 2006 to reach the final.

Fae, who took over after Jean-Louis Gasset was fired after the group stage, spoke to Omasports about revitalizing the team’s sense of pride and said Nigeria is a team they are emulating.

“When we look at teams that are still in this competition, like Nigeria, for example, we have seen since their match against us that they have defensive solidity, that they have a team that has been very, very united, who defends together and who attacks together,” Fae said.

”And it’s this solidarity that makes that, of course, with the individual qualities of the players that they have because they have kinds of quality.

“But on top of that, the block, the team spirit they have allowed them to reach the semi-final.

“So we wanted to prepare for the round of 16, to recreate this state of team spirit. Because I knew personally that I had quality players individually and that if we recreated this collective dynamic, we would thrive.

“We would manage to take the steps one after the other and regain confidence.”

Ivory Coast and Nigeria will meet in the final if the hosts beat DR Congo and Nigeria triumph over South Africa in the semifinals on Wednesday.