"Not good enough”

NAMIBIA’s 2019 Afcon campaign came to a crushing end after capitulating 4-1 to Ivory Coast in their final group match on Monday evening.

It was their third successive defeat at the tournament, and left them at the bottom of Group D on zero points, while the Ivory Coast (six points) advanced to the knockout stages along with group winners Morocco (nine points).

Max Gradel, Serey Die, Wilfried Zaha and Maxwell Cornet scored for Ivory Coast, while Joslin Kamatuka got Namibia’s only goal at the tournament.

Namibia, however, did much better than the scoreline suggests, and in fact had 56% of the possession as opposed to the 44% of the Ivory Coast.

But their finishing was once again woeful, and head coach Ricardo Mannetti could not hide his frustration afterwards.

“I expected our key players to deliver, but they did not pitch up. We created chances, but we could not score, and at this level, you will lose if you don’t take your chances,” he told nfa.org.na

“You can’t compete against the best, and not come to the party. We dominated some facets of our matches here, but we just couldn’t kill off the matches, and it’s high time that the players take responsibility and do their part,” he added.

According to an AFP report, Mannetti said they were not good enough to compete at Afcon.

“Our best is not good enough. We had at one stage the best players on the pitch, technically gifted … I think we still have a long way to go. It’s not good enough at all for this level,” he was quoted as saying.

“We cannot lose concentration, make silly mistakes, high school errors, and obviously against a team like Ivory Coast, you will get punished,” he added.

Mannetti, however, said there were stages when they outplayed their star-studded opponents.

“I think there was a stage where we made Ivory Coast look very, very average, and then there was a stage where Ivory Coast made us look like schoolboys. How do you get those two contrasting things in one game? As far as I’m concerned, it’s just immaturity from our side, and we have to improve our quality levels,” he stressed.

Namibia took the game to their opponents from the start, and after dominating the early exchanges, they had a great chance to take the lead on 18 minutes when Peter Shalulile headed wide from a Petrus Shitembi cross with the goalmouth gaping.

Another shot by Shalulile was well-saved by Ivorian keeper Sylvain Gbohouo six minutes later, while at the other end, Namibian keeper Loydt Kazapua was caught in no man’s land outside his box, but did well to scramble back and save a shot.

Ivory Coast took the lead on 38 minutes when Gradel received a great through-ball over the Namibian defence and beat Kazapua from close range.

Namibia were quite unlucky, as replays suggested that Gradel was offside, while luck once again deserted them 10 minutes into the second half when a long-range shot by Serey Die was deflected by Ryan Nyambe into his own goal.

Namibia finally opened their account with a great solo goal by Joslin Kamatuka, who intercepted a poor clearance by Gbohouo, and turned on the pace to beat two defenders and shoot into the net.

Namibia were back in contention, but Shalulile once again headed wide on 75 minutes, and Ivory Coast finished with aplomb.

Wilfried Zaha made it 3-1 after a fine pass by Kessie, while Cornet scored their fourth goal after another strong run by Kessie.

Namibia are now one of four teams who are definitely out of the knockout stages, with the others being Burundi, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.