Rising Stars Coach Identifies What Went Wrong in Loss to Tunisia as Kenya Stares at Early AFCON U20 Exit

Rising Stars coach Anthony Akhulia. Photo || FKF

Rising Stars Coach Identifies What Went Wrong in Loss to Tunisia as Kenya Stares at Early AFCON U20 Exit

Joel Omotto 14:56 - 05.05.2025

Kenya U20 coach Anthony Akhulia has weighed in on what went wrong for his team during their match against Tunisia when they suffered a 3-1 defeat on Sunday.

Rising Stars coach Anthony Akhulia has blamed a lapse in concentration for their loss to Tunisia at the 2025 U20 Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday.

Kenya lost 3-1 after going ahead before allowing the North Africans a route back into the game with a number of defensive errors that proved costly for a second match running.

There were similar issues in their first match, when they lost 3-2 to Morocco last Thursday, with poor decision making, lack of concentration and communication seeing them punished once more.

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“Comparing this to our first match, I think we didn’t play well,” Akhulia said after the match as quoted by Mozzart Sport.

“We were a bit slow in our movement, our midfield didn’t click that much, and our defence was again caught up in areas that we couldn’t defend well. It wasn’t a good match for us.

“We’re having lapses in concentration towards the end of the first half. It happened again, just like in the first match.

"The stoppages in the match every time we were moving forward the game had many injuries, and the added minutes at the end of course.”

The Bidco United coach is disappointed that his team had opportunities to rise to the occasion but did not take advantage of them.

“Basically, I think there were moments we were supposed to rise, but we let Tunisia take control of the match. That was our biggest letdown,” he added.

Kenya have now let in six goals from two matches, the most in the competition so far, with their defending coming under huge scrutiny, but Akhulia was quick to shield his players.

“It’s not right. It's a team problem. You cannot single out individuals. It is something we need to work on before we face our next opponent. It is a concern for me, and our technical bench,” he added.

Rising Stars face the prospect of an early elimination from the tournament as they have zero points from two group stage matches with the top two teams from each of the three groups, plus the two best third-ranked teams, set to make it to the quarter-final.

Kenya therefore need to beat Nigeria on Wednesday and hope that results go their way elsewhere, to sneak through as one of the two best third-ranked teams.