Wubetu Abate – Ethiopia
About the game
“First of all I would like to congratulate the Burundi national team, it was a good encounter. we needed all three points, I am really pleased with the overall performances of my players regardless of the result. I think we deserve all the three points, but that didn’t happen.”
What went wrong in the second half?
“Not the entire half, in the early 15minutes of the second half we retreated a bit due to the intention of maintaining the scoreline that enabled them to have plenty of spaces. But after they scored they also sat back and we were superior as three points were a must for us. I think in those early minutes of the second half we were a bit quiet.”
overall assessment of the team’s performance?
“In today’s match we only scored once so am not suppose to talk a lot about our offensive play. The team is of under 23 players so what we are basically looking for is what the future Ethiopian national team might look. Today we had a good game but I think there is are room for improvement in each department. Football is all about the process we could not achieve our targets in a short span of time, this team is only a few months old. so it would be unfair to expect a lot from the players but what we witnessed was a great display from them.
Jamie Nidayziye – Burundi
About the game
“I would like to take this chance to appreciate the Ethiopian national team, they were good in today’s game as they were on the front foot from kickoff till the end. We were under pressure as a result of winning our first group game but the Ethiopian team was best, generally speaking we did what it take to salvage a point from the game.”
About their next opponent
“I have seen the Kenyan team, they are a very good team as they have very good technical and physically imposing players. We have two days to prepare before the semi final game so we take them seriously.”
