Posted in News on Sep 30, 2010.
For Nahayo who after a long lay- off through injury made a comeback for the Burundi team earlier this month when they opened up with a 1-1 draw against Benin away from home, playing the star studded Ivory Coast team is not new territory.
Having faced them previously Nahayo believes that he is better geared up this time around to square off against the likes of Salomon Kalou, Kolo Toure, Yaya Toure and Gervinho.
“For me to be thinking about playing against the Ivory Coast and the players that they have is huge motivation for me, I played against them before in 2003 and I was a young player that time now I am more experienced and will hopefully be able to do much better against them” added an eager Nahayo.
The Chiefs defender while recollecting the games he played in against the Ivoirians seven years ago further added, “when we played them that time we only lost 1-0 at home they had Didier Drogba, Didier Zokora and Kolo Toure playing, now we have more players with international experience and we will come up with a good game plan to stop them.”
While Nahayo does not want to get carried away being by over optimistic he does insist that Burundi who are chasing their first appearance at the finals competition of the Africa Cup of Nations should not fear the Ivory Coast.
When asked if he was nervous about facing one of the best assembled teams on the continent Nahayo said “It is the highlight of any players career to play against the best players in the World, and when you do the aim is to give it your best, I know the Ivory Coast are a good team but we got home ground advantage.
Our noisy and passionate fans will be behind us so we cannot be scared of them and have to go out there and give it all we have”.
The game is scheduled to take place on the 8th of October Valery is due to leave for Burundi this coming weekend, as it stands the Ivory Coast lead the group while Burundi are in second place.
