‘We never stopped believing’ – Kessie

Midfielder Franck Kessie says hosts Ivory Coast never stopped believing they could win the Africa Cup of Nations as they set up a final date with Nigeria in Abidjan on Sunday, weeks after they were on the brink of a humiliating first round exit.

The Ivorians defeated the Democratic Republic of Congo 1-0 in their semi-final on Wednesday to complete a remarkable turnaround in fortunes under caretaker coach Emerse Fae.

When the Ivorians were humiliated 4-0 by Equatorial Guinea in their final pool match – the biggest ever defeat by a host nation – few would have imagined they would be in the knockout rounds, let alone a final.

With only three points and a -3 goal-difference, they scraped through as the last of the best third-placed finishers, essentially the 16th out of 16 teams to reach the knockouts.

They only got there by virtue of some surprise results elsewhere and by the time their passage was confirmed, had sacked French coach Jean-Louis Gasset, installing his assistant Fae as their caretaker coach.

"As long as you still have a five or 10 percent chance you need to keep believing, because that is what makes football beautiful," Kessie said. "After the Morocco result (against Zambia in the pool stages), we knew we had qualified and that changed everything.

"It gave us the strength we needed, it boosted us. We knew we couldn't do worse than in the first round. We need to keep going like this because you can't go all the way to the final only to then give up."
Fae is suddenly on the brink of a continental triumph as a head coach, something he could not have imagined going into the tournament.

"We are happy, we're really moved. It's like a dream, when you go back two weeks to the defeat here against Equatorial Guinea," Fae said. "It was hard then to imagine that we might qualify for the final of our own AFCON."

DR Congo now face South Africa for the bronze medal on Saturday, and coach Sebastien Desabre wants to finish on a high.

"The first feeling I have is one of disappointment, but when it comes to reflecting on our tournament it will be positive whatever happens," Desabre said. "Even if we lost a game of football tonight, we did everything to try to win it.

"The spirit in the team is extraordinary. Of course they are disappointed but this will help us going forward. We are competitors. We are disappointed and we will need to remobilise quickly to try to get a medal."