Lobamba: Sihlangu Head Coach Dominic Kunene is targeting nine points in Sihlangu’s remaining four games of the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Kunene will lead the nation’s pride in two back-to-back matches against Congo Brazaville this month in what will be his first match in charge of the senior football national team since his appointment back in February.
The former Young Buffaloes and National Under-20 coach is convinced nine points from the possible 12 to play for will take Sihlangu to their first AFCON appearance.
SIHLANGU 2021 AFCON QUALIFIERS FIXTURE
Thursday, 12 November 2020
Congo Brazaville vs Eswatini
Monday, 16 November 2020
Eswatini vs Congo Brazaville
Monday, 22 March 2021
Eswatini vs Guinea-Bissau
Tuesday, 30 March 2021
Senegal vs Eswatini
Speaking on Wednesday, Kunene was convinced it is a doable job.
“It is not an easy job (being a national coach) but we appreciate the trust and our job is not to disappoint. We will work hard. Actually we feared the forced break will come with a lot of negatives but after the first session we picked a few positives, especially on the fitness levels of the players.
“It shows the boys were working hard during the difficult Coronavirus period because they are not bad physically. We got clips of Congo Brazaville and noted they are an attacking team hence so much work have been put on defensive organisation and protecting our goal posts.
“If we obviously get that right, it will lessen mistakes. But we need points and nine points will get us back into contention. We will not defend, but we will grind results,” Kunene said.
Sihlangu are bottom of the table in Group I of the qualifiers after 0-3 and 1-4 defeats to Guinea-Bissau and Senegal respectively in the opening two matches that were overseen by Serbian strategist Kostadin Papic.
AFCON 2021 QUALIFIERS GROUP I STANDINGS
TEAM P W L D Pts
Senegal 2 2 0 0 6
Congo Brazaville 2 1 1 0 3
Guinea-Bissau 2 1 1 0 3
Eswatini 2 0 2 0 0
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