Djibouti coach Adbourahman Okie Had believes his side are in Monrovia to beat Liberia and progress to the next stage of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers despite their 2-0 defeat in Marrakech on Wednesday.

Liberia will take on Djibouti in the return leg of their preliminary qualifiers at the SKD Sports Complex defending a healthy 2-0 advantage, which leaves the visitors with a mountain task on Tuesday.

“What we expect foremost is a victory…during the first leg we created a lot of opportunities but we didn’t take it,” Okie Had told a press conference, adding: “They [Liberia] were lucky with the penalty and we made mistakes and Conceded the second. It’s been more than five years [eight years] since we lost to them back-to-back, but our football has evolved and this is a different Djibouti team.”

Hassan Hussein, Djibouti captain defended his boss adding that they travelled with a mandate to beat the Lone Stars. “Our mandate is to win and continue the tournament and as a striker, that’s the assigned task,” Hussein emphasised.

Djibouti must score twice to stand a chance of progressing. The visitors have lost their last three meetings in which they conceded eight goals and are yet to score against their hosts.