Tanzania coach Emmanuel Amuneke has disclosed that his charges are not afraid of playing any team at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
The 48-year-old made history in March by guiding the east African country to their first biennial competition after a 39-year absence.
The Taifa Stars ended their qualification campaign as Group L runners-up behind Uganda with a record of two wins, two draws and two losses in six games.
On Friday, the 24 qualified teams will know their fate for the first round in Cairo and Amuneke who guided Nigeria U-17 team to Fifa World Cup triumph in 2015 is daring to take on any challenge in the tournament even from Gernot Rohr’s Super Eagles.
“I am a professional, and it does not matter even if I am playing against my mother or my late father; I want to win,” Amuneke told ESPN.
“And we cannot be afraid of anybody, otherwise we should not be among the 24 teams at the tournament.
“But we will continue to work hard, to improve, to learn from our mistakes and try to do better.”
Amuneke, a one-time winner of the African Footballer of the Year award, was part of the Nigeria squad that won the continental title in 1994 and he is in line to become the second Nigerian to win the Afcon as a player and a coach after Stephen Keshi’s success in South Africa 2013. However, the former Barcelona attacker is aiming ‘to go beyond Keshi’s feat’.
“We all know the kind of person Keshi was. He gave everything during his time to the game that he loved so much and I am privileged to have towed his steps,” he added.
“I cannot compare myself to Keshi because who he is and what he has done is incomparable.
“But we pray that the son should grow more than his father. If it is the will of God, our ambition is to go beyond Keshi.”
