Amrouche laments Dismas' red card in Taifa Stars AFCON defeat

In a tough Group F game, Tanzania’s players found themselves chasing the game after the half-hour mark.

Roman Saiss was in the right place at the right time to slot home inside the area after the goalkeeper Aishi Manula fumbled Hakim Ziyech's speculative free kick.

Ziyech then almost found himself on the scoresheet but Haji Mnoga was a match for his fierce effort towards the bottom corner.

Youssef En-Nesyri was twice guilty of missing chances as Tanzania held on for a respectful one-goal deficit at the break, and was on hand again soon after the restart to mistime a shot to let his opponents off the hook.

All faint hopes for Tanzania were extinguished with 20 minutes to go when Novatus Dismas was shown a second yellow card for another late challenge, reducing Taifa Stars to 10 men.

A quickfire double then put the game to bed. Azzedine Ounahi first exchanged a neat one-two on the edge of the area before firing home, and then setting up En-Nesyri to finally get his goal and tournament up and running.

Taifa Stars head coach Adel Amrouche discussed Novatus' red card and several other players' bookings in his press conference. The Algerian felt it made things very difficult for his side.

“It was tough for us today. That red card, like I said before, sometimes we play football but there are some things we can’t control. If you see that red card, I think Novatus never imagined it,” Amrouche said.

The Belgo-Algerian coach pointed out: “We are going to correct our mistakes for the next game and I hope we are going to progress. "

"It is two tough games. Zambia and DR Congo are strong teams. We know Zambia and they also know our players."

“We are going to work hard to correct today’s mistakes and don’t forget we have the youngest team in the tournament. This is a good experience for them," Amrouche noted.

The coach explained: "When you play against Morocco, World Cup semi-finalists it is difficult to compare the quality of the players they have and what we have."

“We have the youngest team in the tournament. This is the future for Tanzanian football and, for that, we must rally behind these players. I am sure they are going to make fans happy in the future,” the coach revealed.