Mauritius coach Boodhum: We'll play for pride at home

Mauritius Under-23 coach Sekoor Boodhun has written off his team's chances of overturning a 5-0 deficit when they face Kenya's Emerging Stars in the first round, second leg match of their 2019 Africa Under23 Cup of Nations-cum-Olympics qualifiers on Sunday.

The Indian Ocean islanders were thumped 5-0 by the Francis Kimanzi-led Emerging Stars in the first leg at the Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani on Wednesday, a loss that Boodhum blamed on the lack of an active league at home.

“In our country, the competition stopped five months ago so the boys lack fitness, it was a surprising win for Kenya but we congratulate them,” he said after the match.

“Kenya have a very strong team, they were dangerous, played direct balls and scored from the crosses. We know they’ve already qualified because it’s difficult to pull a comeback of five goals. We will try to play and perhaps try to win at home as an honour to our country.”

The team departs for Port Louis, Mauritius on Thursday ahead of the reverse fixture on Sunday.

KIMANZI PRAISES HIS STARS

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• The hosts were 2-0 up at the break through Johnstone Omurwa and James Mazembe's goals before adding three more in the final half via Pistone Mutamba, Sydney Lokale and Joseph Okumu.
  “It was a wonderful performance, a huge win in the first match is so impressive for us. The boys did their best, they showed that they were ready to win,” said Kimanzi.
  “I think the entire technical bench was surprised at how comfortable, confident and motivated they were.”
  With a ticket to the next round as good as sealed, Kimanzi will be looking to make changes to hi line-up on Sunday.
  England-based Jonah Ayunga and Georgia-based Alwyn Tera are some of the foreign-based players who didn’t feature in the fixture.
  “When you’ve a lot of new players especially those plying their trade in other countries, there’s always cultural and language challenges so we’ve to be clever in balancing otherwise we can create some trouble in terms of communication in the team."
  The aggregate winner will face either Seychelles or Sudan - who battled to a one-all draw in the first leg match on Wednesday - in the second round in March next year.