Sebastien Desabre determined to ensure DR Congo’s AFCON fate rests in own hands

DR Congo head coach Sebastien Desabre is determined to ensure his side’s fate remains solely in their hands with victory over Tanzania.

A win against the Taifa Stars on Wednesday will guarantee DR Congo a birth in the last 16 of the Africa Cup of Nations, with Morocco taking on Zambia in the other fixture in Group F.

Morocco currently top the table with four points, with DR Congo and Zambia on two points and Tanzania bottom with a single point from two games.

The top two teams from each of the six groups will advance to the last 16, along with the four best third-placed sides.

“We intend to give our best,” Desabre said. “We are confident and concentrated on the task. We are playing to win and its very important that we win.

“We need the victory and we also want to qualify because that is very important. We do not want to find ourselves in a situation of making calculations.

“We want to win and gain automatic qualification because anything less than that puts our fate outside of our hands.”

Tanzania assistant coach Hemed Suleiman will again take charge of the side against DR Congo after Adel Amrouche’s meltdown following the 3-0 loss to Morocco saw him banned for eight games and subsequently sacked.

“It’s a final for us,” Suleiman said.

“We tried to work on our problems. These games are hard but there is solidarity in the group.

“Ours for now is to focus on tomorrow’s game. We have to forget about the previous games and focus on this new task.”