Luanda - Angola and Morocco face each other at 8pm this Sunday for the final of the African Futsal Championship, to be played at the Salle Palais des sports Pavilion, in Rabat.
This is a challenge of reckoning for the National Team, after the 2-5 defeat in the opening round of the event.
Morocco, defending champions, eliminated Libya in the semi-finals with a 6-0 victory, while Angola, 3rd placed in the previous edition, beat Egypt by 7-3.
After defeating the three-time African champion team, the national team are aiming for the first title, 16 years after their first appearance in a competition.
In previewing the match, the national coach, Marcos Antunes, stated that having eliminated Egypt, the most successful team in the competition, provides extra motivation.
However, after having achieved their objective of reaching the unprecedented final, the Portuguese coach hopes that his team, whose average age is around 23 years old, will enjoy putting pressure on their opponents.
“We have already done what we had to do, but we are not going to play in the final to fill in the schedule. The main objective is to play eye-to-eye with Morocco. We know that we are going to suffer because they play at home, in a pavilion that holds 9 thousand people”, he stressed.
The coach says that his team will be competitive, aware that the mission is difficult “but we will fight until exhaustion”.
He mentioned that Morocco has a traditional way of playing, but that the Angolan squad today have more experience and are better prepared to correct some mistakes made in the first game.
“We grew as we played the games. The objective is to at least try to maintain this line of work”, he asserted.
Marcos Antunes, who took over Angola's technical command in 2022, has already guaranteed his presence in the 10th edition of the World Championship, from September 14th to October 6th, in Uzbekistan.
MC/CF/jmc
