Sudan coach Mohamed Abdullah Mazda expressed satisfaction with his team’s performance in this year’s African Cup of Nations (CAN) despite their elimination from the contest on Saturday.

The Falcons lost 3-0 to Zambia in the quarterfinals of the African championship.

“Our participation in the tournament was successful despite the loss,” Mazda said at a post-game conference.

“We achieved our target from the CAN 2012, as we hadn’t scored any points or goals in the finals since 1976. But we achieved that this time,” he added.

“We need more experienced players to book a place in the semis,” he added.

“I will do my best to assemble a big team with these young players who gained considerable experience from this tournament,” Mazda concluded.

Meanwhile, Zambia tactician Rinard described the game against Sudan as “tough.”

“As I expected, the game was very hard. I studied Sudan’s tactics well, so we succeeded in reaching the semis,” Rinard said.

“We achieved our target of booking a place in the championship semi-finals, which we haven’t done for 16 years,” he added.

Zambia will join Ivory Coast in the semi-finals, each having asserted its power with a 3-0 victory over Sudan and hosts Equatorial Guinea respectively.    

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