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Tremendous Speech by Kessié Upon Reaching the Final: "We Told Each Other to the Face that..."
The 'President' recalled the bitterest moments that Ivory Coast had to live through in this AFCON and how they went from that abyss to almost touching the sky.
Ivory Coast staged a remarkable comeback in the AFCON 2023 after advancing to the round of 16 as the fourth-best third-placed team in the group stage and reaching the tournament final as hosts by defeating DR Congo.
Interim coach Emerse Faé, who took over after the dismissal of Jean-Louis Gasset following a 4-0 defeat against Equatorial Guinea, expressed his joy at a press conference after securing a spot in the final. "We are very happy, very moved. It's like a dream," Faé said.
"When you go back two weeks to the defeat here against Equatorial Guinea, we were far from imagining that two weeks later we would be qualifying for our final because it's our AFCON," the interim coach said.
Regarding the match against DR Congo, Faé commented that they controlled it more than other games and, although they went through "difficult periods" during the game, they deserved the victory.
Kessié's speech
After the match, one of the key players of this team, Franck Kessié, also spoke. The former Barcelona player took the floor and was straightforward.
"These aren't individual performances, but collective ones," began the "President". "After the humiliation against Equatorial Guinea, we looked at ourselves in the mirror, we said things to each other and realized that we couldn't do any worse, and today we are very happy because we have qualified for the final in the same stadium where we lost 4-0."
It will be on Sunday, the 11th, when Nigeria and Ivory Coast face off in the grand final of AFCON 2023, a match you can experience and enjoy through beIN SPORTS.
