‘Beating Us Will Not Be Easy’ - Benni McCarthy Out to Defy History as He Fires Warning to Guinea

Harambee Stars coach Benni McCarthy is confident that his team can secure a victory away from Guinea, something they have not done in their last four visits.

Kenya have a tough 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against the Syli National at Stade du 28 Septembre in Conakry on Thursday evening (kick off 7pm Kenyan time) but history predicts doom for Kenya.

Guinea and Kenya have faced off eight times since their first meeting in December 1992 with either side winning four a piece. Crucially, those wins have come when either team is playing at home.

The West Africans first won at home in December 1992, securing a 4-0 victory, and then hosted Kenya in November 1996, winning 2-0. Their third home match against Kenya was in June 2005, when they won 1-0, and then the final meeting between them in October 2008, winning 3-2.

However, while McCarthy acknowledges the gulf in class between his team and their hosts, he remains confident of maximum points if they can avoid costly mistakes.

“I always like to teach my players that when you play against the likes of Guinea, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, all the good world class West African teams,” he said.

“If you are not 100 per cent prepared and focused on the game, one small mistake, because they have really quality players that can win you a game by one mistake, so for us the plan is to try and have the most perfect match where we don’t make mistakes.

“If they must beat us, then they will have to play the best game because beating us is not going to be easy so we just have to be very organised, no mistakes and then we will have a chance.”

Guinea have top quality players with the standout name being Borussia Dortmund striker Serhou Guirassy but McCarthy is cautioning his team against focusing on the star man.

“We are aware of the quality players that Guinea have,” added the Harambee Stars coach.

“Guinea have a team that does not exist on only one good player. [Serhou] Guirassy is playing in Dortmund and everybody knows the qualities he has but there are many other players in the team that have good qualities so to focus on one player will be the biggest mistake we can make,” he further stated.

“We prepared a team in general and we are just trying to be as simple as possible, eliminate the threats because we know the wingers they have are quick and skilful, and we will try and limit the options to give us the possibility to play our own game.”

Kenya come into the match after a 1-1 draw with Eritrea while Guinea lost 2-1 to South Africa. The winner of Thursday’s contest will move to second place in Group D behind Bafana Bafana, who thrashed Eritrea 5-0 on Wednesday, to extend their lead with six points.