DR Congo leave positive image, says coach after epic battle with England

ATLANTA: Democratic Republic of Congo coach Sebastien Desabre said his side had left a positive image of their football for the world to see after running England close at the World Cup on Wednesday.

The Congolese led for more than an hour in their last-32 clash before Harry Kane’s double turned the result around in the last 15 minutes to send DR Congo home and England through to a meeting with Mexico.

“When you represent the national team you have to leave a good image behind and this I believe we did,” said Desabre, whose side scored after seven minutes and defended stoutly before finally being breached in the last 15 minutes,” Desabre said.

“We are more proud than disappointed. We are disappointed to be leaving the World Cup of course but we scored five goals in the tournament and played much higher-ranked teams and managed good results.”

Desabre surprised by adopting a more offensive approach than had been predicted, even by English manager Thomas Tuchel, with four defenders rather than five.

“We wanted to use the width of the field and needed space. We also wanted to close the centre better and cut the road to (Elliott) Anderson, who is important to the English build-up,” he said.

“We managed to corner England but they reacted and that is the capacity of these big teams. It took the best striker in the world to save them and that’s what happens against these big nations. We did what we could, we were close to winning but it can also been seen as a victory of sorts for us.”

DR Congo were playing in their second World Cup, 52 years after their maiden appearance in 1974 when the country was known as Zaire and conceded 13 goals in three games without scoring.

This time they finished as the best of third-placed finishers after drawing with Portugal and beating Uzbekistan in the group stage.