Mauritania lands in Bouaké, hoping to cause an upset in Group D

Published: Thursday, 11 January 2024

Mauritania’s national team are the latest to arrive in Côte d'Ivoire for the TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Cote d’Ivoire 2023. Top of the agenda for the team is to cause an upset in Group D.

Players, technical and other members of the team touched down in the city of Bouaké on Thursday, January 11, 2023. 

The Lions of Chinguetti will be making their third straight final appearance in the competition.

Cladded in their traditional colors, the Mauritanian team went through the formalities at the airport and were given a fitting welcome. 

The team landed with former Comoros head coach, Amir Abdou, who made it to the round of 16 of the 2021 AFCON in Cameroon with his home country, Comoros. 

He told CAFOnline exclusively that he’s looking forward a better showing in Côte d'Ivoire. 

“We will try and do better than what we have done in previous tournaments. 

“We are ready and, we will do our best to get the win against Burkina Faso in our opening game,” Amir said.

Mauritania are making their third successive appearance in the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON and have failed to progress from their group in the previous two. 

They face a tough test again against 2019 champions, Algeria, 2013 runners up, Burkina Faso and Angola. 

Defender, Aly Abeid played in the previous two campaigns and is in Côte d'Ivoire for the third campaign. 

He hopes they progress to the next round this time around. 

“The two previous AFCONs were disappointing and we will try to do better this time in Côte d'Ivoire. The first game is always the most difficult one, so, we need to get a positive result and we will take it from there after the first game,” he said. 

Mauritania will open their 2023 TotalEnergies CAF AFCON campaign against Burkina Faso at the Stade de la Paix in Bouake on Tuesday night.