COMOROS captain Nadjim “Jimmy” Abdou says the football team’s historic victory over Botswana in March has given them the belief that they can beat Burkina Faso on Sunday.
The island nation beat Botswana 1-0 at home earlier this year to register their maiden victory in 2017 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) qualifying.
It came in their 20th attempt and leaves the Comoros with an outside chance of reaching next year’s Afcon.
“Now we are confident we can win at home,” Abdou told BBC Sport.
“We have to win this game to hope for a chance to go through. It will be tough, to be honest, but we are aiming to win and will see what happens after that.”
Even if they stun the Burkinabe, Comoros would also need to register a historic first qualifying away win in Uganda in September to have any chance of unlikely qualification for Gabon 2017.
Lying bottom of Group D with three points, four behind joint leaders Burkina Faso and Uganda, Comoros’ faint dreams are also relying on other results going their way.
Nonetheless, the victory over Botswana, which came more than 3 000 days after first contesting a qualifier, has established new targets, especially for the fans.
“They think we are going to be in a tournament – that’s normal as a fan,” said Abdou, who has captained the side since 2011.
“The fans over there believe in us and we have to believe in ourselves as well.”
The Botswana result beat Comoros’ previous best in qualifiers, which came in 2018 World Cup qualifying when they earned an away-goals win over Lesotho in the first round.
That victory set up a tie against Ghana, whom they held to a goalless draw in Comoros before being eliminated after losing 2-0 away.
“At home everything is possible,” said Abdou, who plays for Millwall in the third tier of English football.
“At home we feel confident and we can make this game hard for them.”
