They kicked off their campaign with a 1-1 draw against Zambia, before registering a 1-1 draw with Morocco. In their final group game, Mali were held to a 0-0 draw with Comoros.

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Reflecting on their progression to the last 16, where Mali will play one of Tunisia, Tanzania or Uganda, Saintfiet admitted his team will need to start being more effective in front of goal or risk being eliminated in the next phase.

He said on FlashScore: “It feels weird honestly, because as coach, you want to win games, you want to do it also for the public, and it is not that we didn’t play well, we scored two goals in three games, one penalty and one on normal play.

“Everyone talks of how we have a good combination of football, but we have to be more efficient in front of goal, and that is something we have to work on before the coming game.”

The head coach added: “First of all, in the first half we played quite well with a lot of ball possession, we dominated the game, and played nice combination of football, but second half we lost the focus, I think there was fatigue, we had only played two days ago against Morocco in Rabat and we had to travel back here.

“A lot of my players were tired, and at the end it was even more dangerous for us because if we conceded a goal, it was game over, but at the end I am happy we qualified, and now we have to analyse things, we have five days between the next game, so the players can recover, and we have to be ready for the next phase.”