Vafessa Fofana has tagged Cote d’Ivoire’s clash with the D’Tigers of Nigeria in the final round of the FIBA Basketball World Cup 2019 qualifying campaign a ‘dogfight’, reports Completesports.com.
Cote d’Ivoire will host the second leg of Group F of the tournament which includes Mali, Rwanda, Central African Republic, Senegal and Nigeria in Abidjan from February 22 to 24.
The ‘Elephants’ currently share Group F’s third spot with
They will need to beat Nigeria, Rwanda, and Mali to return to the World Cup for the first time in almost nine years.
And Fofana remains confident in achieving the tough task.
Cote d’Ivoire will look to avenge their 84-73 loss to D’Tigers in the first leg second round tie played in Lagos on the 14th of September, 2018 when the lockhorns on the 22nd of February at Palais des Sports de Treichville.
“There is only room for improvement now, we can’t afford to make the same mistakes from the last window,” Fofana told FIBA.com.
“Nigeria is a good team, no doubt about that, but all we have to do is to stay focused from start to finish of that game. The game against Nigeria is going to be a dogfight.”
Nigeria
“It’s going to be hard for sure because we are going to play against some of the best teams in Africa. But we are confident we can do better this time around. In the last window, we made silly mistakes, which proved costly to us.”
He continued: “I have been talking to my teammates and coaching staff, and we are all very excited to be able to play this last window in Abidjan.”
