By Kalumiana Kalumiana
Patson Daka has conceded that Chipolopolo were not good enough in Tuesday’s 3-0 loss against Morocco which ended their 2025 AFCON campaign and further stated that it is also pointless to moan about not showing enough appetite in the obvious matches they should have won that they played before facing The Atlas Lions.
Tuesday’s loss in their final Group A match saw Chipolopolo finish bottom of the pool on 2 points while Morocco and Mali advance to the last 16 on 7 and 3 points respectively.
Comoros finished 3rd on 2 points after drawing 0-0 with Mali on the same date.
Daka admitted in a post-match interview in Rabat that they had given Morocco too much freedom to express themselves.
”We knew that Morocco would come at us. I think we gave them too much respect. We were defending in our own half which was very difficult and we made everything difficult for ourselves,” Daka said.
Ayoub El Kaabi scored a brace in the 9th and 50th minutes while Brahim Diaz found the target in between in the 27th minute.
The result saw Chipolopolo still without an AFCON win since they lifted the Africa Cup in 2012, with 9 draws and 3 losses- on all occasions, making group stage exits after finishing 3rd in 2013, last in 2015, 3rd again in 2024 and bottom of Group A in 2025.
”We didn’t do much to help ourselves today. We gave them too much space to show themselves and were comfortable with the space we gave,” Daka said.
”Had we not given them space, it was going to be a different ball game. We didn’t do enough today. I think we didn’t do our best to get anything from the game.
”The whole tournament has been difficult but I think we didn’t really have a bad start. We did better in the first two games. I think it was just the lack of experience from our end. We didn’t read the game properly and it was a lack of maturity.”
Chipolopolo started the AFCON with a 1-1 draw against Mali and a 0-0 draw against Comoros but it was a huge ask to shift a gear in the match against Morocco following their modestly fair form exhibited in those first two Group A matches.
”We could have progressed if we had won against Comoros but that is water under the bridge. It’s not like we are going to play that game again so we had to look at this game. We didn’t do enough,” Daka said.
”The youngsters are good players that is why they are here. Everyone who is here I think deserved to be . We just have to continue working together and supporting each other.”
