Burkina Faso know they need to bounce back with a win against hosts Equatorial Guinea in Bata on Wednesday to keep their quarter-final hopes alive at the African Nations Cup after being the only side in Group A to lose their opener.
Defeat in their second game, coupled with just a draw for Gabon against Congo-Brazzaville, and the 2013 finalists will be heading home early.
But Paul Put's side will fancy their chances against Guinea - their 2-0 defeat to Gabon was by no means one-way traffic as they created numerous chances and probably should have won the game.
Put blamed the opening defeat to Gabon on bad luck, and says his players must show a better mentality.
"The next match is crucial, one of the most important of the first round. It is up to us to prove ourselves if we want to go through," he told reporters.
As ever, Jonathan Pitroipa was pulling the strings in midfield and he will be crucial again in what is likely to be a hostile away environment.
The big question is whether Put will start with giant striker Aristide Bance, who came off the bench against Gabon and showed his qualities.
Equatorial Guinea are still smarting from their opening 1-1 draw with Congo-Brazzaville when they let a late lead slip and had a goal wrongly ruled out for offside.
It leaves the team and coach Estaban Becker under severe pressure as they face the unwanted prospect of being a host nation ousted in the first round.
So incensed do the Guinea side claim to be over Emilio Nsue's "goal that never was" that they have appealed to the Confederation of African Football.
Exactly what they are asking for has not been made clear, but the Equatorial Guinea Football Federation (Feguifut) alleged on the government's official website that this was a plan from the referee, Gambian Bakary Papa Gassama, to stop the side reaching the quarter-finals.
That rather childish accusation flies in the face of reason since, if anything, it's exactly what organisers don't want - for the sake of local interest in the tournament they would like the host side to get out of the pool phase.
But it is the kind of grandstanding and conspiracy theory that dogs a country such as Equatorial Guinea, where public image and managing public perception comes before reason.
Coach Esteban Becker is unlikely to make many changes to his side, who were the better team for an hour before visibly tiring in the closing stages of the game as the fitter Congolese came roaring back.
