Mapeza salutes Warriors, who went down fighting against Senegal

Warriors head coach Norman Mapeza has praised his charges who he says gave good account of themselves in an AFCON Group B match against Senegal.

The Warriors fell on the last minute after the Lions of Teranga were given a penalty for a handling offense.

However, Mapeza believes his charges played well.

“Credit goes to my boys. I think we played very well. Nobody gave us a chance against a quality team like Senegal.

If you look at the names in their squad, most of their guys are playing for top European clubs,” he says.

Mapeza adds that the team is now setting sights on the next match against Malawi on Friday.

“I think we had some moments where we controlled the game. Luck wasn’t on our side. Credit to my boys, I think they worked their socks off. Now we focus on our next game against Malawi.

“We are just going to work on our conversion rate. I think we did a lot in the final third where we had some good opportunities.

“We also had some opportunities on set pieces. I’m proud of my boys. We worked so hard. Our minds are now on the game against Malawi where we need to give our all so that we can get maximum points because I think if we can manage to get 4 points we will get to the round of 16. That is where much of our focus will be against Malawi.

Unfortunately, we have a 23-man squad. I should give credit to those guys which I selected today.

“We have got guys who came from Europe and they only joined the squad with 5 days to go, but the rest of those guys [trained together] for about 10 days. So, I don’t think I made any wrong decision in selecting those guys who started today. I think they did well,” he adds.

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