The Times of Swaziland
Saturday, October 17, 2015
SIKHUPHE – After spending the last six days in Nairobi, Kenya, Djibouti coach Mohammed Ghersalli has declared that his team is not in a good state to play the second leg of the 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers against Sihlangu.
The match is billed for today at Somhlolo National Stadium, kick-off is at 4pm.
Djibouti landed in the country yesterday morning at 7:40am through His Majesty King Mswati III International Airport after they got stuck in Kenya due to lack of transit visas in South Africa. The second leg match was billed for Tuesday evening, but it was postponed after the 206 ranked country failed to make to the country. Sihlangu goes to the second leg match enjoying a 6-0 lead after the first leg encounter, which was played last week Friday in Djibouti.
“Finally we are here but we are not happy at all. The last six days has not been good to us as we had to stay in Nairobi for a long time and that was not good for the team. We are going to honour the game but the team is not ready to play at all,” he said.
The Tunisian said it was impossible to turn around the score after what they had been through. The French speaking coach said they were doing light training while in Kenya but it was not up to standard.
The team was met by amongst others Sihlangu Manager Josiah ’Digger’ Dlamini upon their arrival at Sikhuphe.
The 27 member delegation is accommodated at Esibayeni Lodge. Ghersalli said when they left Djibouti, they never thought that they would need the transit visas as they were only to change flight at the airport without going anywhere else. “This was not fair on us as we never thought and we needed the transit visas. We were only going to change flights at the airport and come straight here. We are happy that the issue was finally sorted though. We went through a hellish time which is not good,” he said.