Harambee Stars coach reveals game plan to be employed against Ivory Coast

Despite a whopping 67 places separating Kenya and the Ivory Coast in the latest FIFA rankings, Harambee Stars do not intend to make that stat count for much when the two nations face off in the last round of the 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers on Tuesday, 14 October.

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For Kenya, placed third in Group F, the fixture plays right into their hands of trying to create a winning culture against formidable opposition, while for The Elephants, who will be the hosts at Alassane Ouattara Ebimpé Olympic Stadium, the game is crucial to them booking their place at next year’s global showpiece for the first time since 2014.

The arithmetic for Emerse Fae’s side is plain and simple: win and you are in.

That fact is not lost on their visitors, who buoyed by their last back-to-back victories, are engaged to play a role of party poopers.

“Any time the national team takes the pitch the intention is to win,” Harambee Stars assistant coach Vasili Manousakis said on Monday.

“We have to go out, we have to create that winning culture - it is now two wins, one on the road and two clean sheets - so the mindset and the mentality is definitely to do our best and try and win.”

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Pertaining group leaders Ivory Coast, the 52-year-old said: “Of course we know the quality in their squad, they have not lost a game in the group, the task is tough.

But we believe in ourselves, nobody really gave us a chance away to Burundi, and even when we showed we needed to dig deep, we managed to get the three points and that was important.”

The last time the two nations met, Harambee Stars, then under former coach Engin Firat, deployed a pragmatic approach to earn a respectable barren draw in Malawi, a style the new technical bench is not willing to repeat this time around.

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“The mindset and the mentality is to play off the front-foot and try to go for the win,” Manousakis, whose side will miss the services of suspended right-back Rooney Onyango, said.

“I think any team knows that if you try to sit back and defend 97-98 minutes against Ivory Coast it is going to be a very difficult task, and a very long match. We do not intend to do that.

We will take the game to them, we cannot worry about what their objectives are and what they have to do. We want to win the match and finish third in the group, which I think would be respectable, considering the group that we are in.”

Kick off is at 2200 EAT.

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