Football: Afcon Under-17 qualifiers |02 July 2016

Seychelles face tough task against Tanzanians

The Seychelles Under-17 side are facing a tough task this afternoon when they try to overturn a three-goal deficit at Stad Linite against Tanzania, in the return leg of the African Cup of Nations (Afcon) 2017 qualifying match.

Seychelles met Tanzania last weekend in the preliminary round of the qualifiers and suffered a heavy 0-3 defeat, making their quest for qualification a difficult one this afternoon.

The Tanzanians scored twice in the first half of last Sunday’s game, before adding a third goal in the second period to leave Seychelles at the end of a 0-3 loss.

A lack of international experience perhaps played against the young players of coach Gavin Jeanne in the away leg and hopefully they will have learned from that first experience and get a good result today, even if they do not manage to qualify for the next round.

Coach Jeanne said: “It will be a difficult game, but we want to produce a much better performance in front of our own supporters.”

Seychelles will need to win by at least four unanswered goals and to do so, the team need to be strong in attack, an area that even the senior national side have struggled with in the last couple of years.

“We played a good game in Tanzania despite the result, especially defensively, but we did not have enough prowess in attack, which let us down,” said coach Gavin Jeanne.

He added: “The players were shocked at the level of the Tanzanians, as they have never played continental football before, which is why we need to have more friendly matches in order for them to continuously test themselves against others from the continent.”

Entrance for this afternoon’s match is R25 and members of the public are being urged to come out in numbers to support our young players.

S. N.