Ivorians eager to seize chance against Senegal after AFCON scare
"This resurrection, this qualification, was a bit of a long shot," Fae told reporters in the Ivorian capital Yamoussoukro, where Monday's game will be played. "God has given us a second chance, so now we have an obligation to give our everything."
Fae, who played alongside Didier Drogba in the Ivorian team that lost the 2006 AFCON final to Egypt, was an emergency appointment as coach of the Elephants following the sacking of Jean-Louis Gasset. The veteran Frenchman was dismissed after Ivory Coast's humiliating 4-0 defeat by Equatorial Guinea last Monday in their final group game.
That result meant they finished behind Equatorial Guinea and Nigeria in their section, but they scraped through to the knockout stage as the last of the four best third-placed teams. "We had two or three days that were very difficult mentally," said Fae, whose team had to wait 48 hours to find out they had qualified thanks to Morocco's defeat of Zambia.
"It was very difficult for us to focus on our work. We needed to let the wounds of the 4-0 defeat heal and then pray that we would qualify. It was like a liberation for us when Morocco beat Zambia on Wednesday."
The defeat against Equatorial Guinea was Ivory Coast's heaviest ever home defeat and Fae admitted "it would be unacceptable for my players not to show a different attitude" compared to that game. Even after the two-time African champions had qualified, it looked as though Fae might not get to take charge of a game.
The Ivorian federation attempted to bring in Herve Renard, the coach of the 2015 AFCON-winning side, on a short-term deal until the end of the competition. However, that move was knocked back by the French Football Federation, with whom Renard is currently under contract as coach of
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