Libyan coach Corentin Martins has expressed great sadness after his side became the first team to be eliminated from the ongoing TotalEnergies CHAN 2022 in Algeria following their 3-2 loss to Mozambique on Tuesday at the Nelson Mandela Stadium in Algiers.
The French tactician admitted that it was very difficult to accept this defeat especially since the Mediterranean Knights had a 1-0 lead at the half-time break.
"It is difficult to accept this result. We had a chance to score the second goal when we had momentum, but we were unable to do so. In the second half, there were some spaces and a lot of pressure on our defenders and when we conceded the second and third goals, we were able to reduce the deficit and tried to adjust thereafter but we failed to score an equalizer. For us, this is a big loss."
Martins added that, "We regret not scoring the second goal that would have killed the match. There are those who say that this is due to the absence of luck or unbalanced play.
"However, we did not have good perseverance and the match could have changed towards a different direction at any point in the game. We conceded thrice and could not respond to it."
"We hope that we will show a kind of pride and strength in our third and last match. Indeed, we have been eliminated at the group stages. Our ambition was to qualify with Algeria from the group stages and to rank second in the group but that did not happen."
Martins admitted that the 2014 CHAN champions were wasteful on the night.
He said, "We reached the opponent's goal, and in the second half we wanted to continue playing well, and we had a chance to score but we did not score and therefore when we do not score, the players feel frustrated."
The Mediterranean Knights had 11 shots at goal and only two were on target on a very difficult night for Martins' side that fell short against a very strong-willed Mozambique side that came from down thanks to an own goal in the first half to convert three goals by three substitutes in a space of 10 minutes.
Melque Melito Alexandre, Feliciano Joao Jone and Pachoio Lau Ha King did the damage against Libya to hand Mozambique their first ever CHAN victory.
Libya will face Ethiopia on Saturday, 21 January at the May 19, 1956 stadium in Annaba at 19:00hrs GMT.
