The coach of the Stallions of Burkina Faso Hubert Velud declared Thursday in Marrakech (Morocco) that his team is ready to face tomorrow Friday (7 p.m.) the Djurtus of Guinea Bissau, counting for the first day of the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

“I feel great motivation from everyone, an excellent state of mind since the start of the course. We are ready for the fight. The desire and great will of the country to go to the World Cup matches the ambition of the players and even the career plan of the players,” declared the coach of the Stallions of Burkina Faso, Hubert Velud.

For the French technician of the Burkinabè team, “the first match is of capital importance in the group stages. It's important to have the results right away. Recently in the CAN qualifying phase we saw the advantages that it gave us to make a very good start.”

He nevertheless recognizes that “it will be a difficult match”, but “we have watched this team, we have observed it. We expect certain difficulties, particularly with a fairly low block which will defend and we will have to find the solution to find the fault in this block”. Team captain Bertrand Traoré, who was not there at the last group, is present in the group for the start of the campaign. He is just as reassuring as his coach. “The dream of all Burkinabè people is to see the Stallions at the final phase of the World Cup. We will start this competition with this spirit,” he said.

He emphasizes that we must be very wary because “Guinea Bissau has a good team. Today in Africa there are no small teams. “It’s a match where we have to take three points to get this campaign off to a good start.”

The central defender of the Etalons and Bayer Leverkusen (Germany) Edmond Tapsoba, called up for the first match but forfeited due to injury, is also in the pink city of the Cherifian kingdom to be in this good-natured atmosphere.

“The coach wanted me to be there. I got injured in a cup match and they made me play in the Bundesliga (German championship: editor's note) and it got worse. We wanted to make an intervention so that I would be fit for the next matches. Currently things are going well. I start touching the ball. By then I will be ready,” he explained.

For the Friday match against the Djurtus, the Burkinabè international advises to “take the match seriously. We will try to win the first two matches and then we will see what happens next. If we want to have the chances of qualifying, it starts tomorrow. “It’s an opportunity to qualify for the World Cup for the first time.”

The entire Etalon group is not complete. There are two injured: Adama Guira and Edmond Tapsoba.

Burkina Faso is in Group A alongside Ethiopia, Sierra Leone, Djibouti, Egypt and Guinea Bissau. He plays this November 17 (7 p.m.) against Guinea Bissau and November 21 against Ethiopia, counting for the first two days.

Source: Burkina Information Agency