Africa the big winner

Lamine N’Diaye said TP Mazembe’s stunning 2-0 triumph over Internacional at the FIFA Club World Cup was a win for all of Africa.

Mazembe made history on Tuesday by becoming the first African club to reach the final of the Club World Cup in arguably the biggest upset of the tournament’s 10-year history.

The Congolese outfit stunned the highly fancied Internacional, who were widely expected to face Italian giants Inter Milan in Sunday’s final.

Instead, the Copa Libertadores champions will square off against Asian champions Seongnam Ilhwa in the battle to decide third place.

Mazembe coach N’Diaye was buoyant after the victory and singled out goalkeeper Muteba Kidiaba for special praise.

Kidiaba kept Internacional at bay with a number of terrific saves and was instrumental in Mazembe’s historic victory.

“It’s something special for us,” N’Diaye told FIFA’s official website.

“We are here to represent Africa, and all of Africa will be proud of our work.”

“We believed in ourselves, we were confident and you could see that when we started attacking, especially at the start of the second half.”

“We were lucky too, and don’t forget that our goalkeeper was excellent – he was like a magician.”

“We have succeeded and shown that our players are of a high standard. We have achieved a great victory.”

“It’s very good for this team and for the Congolese people; and every African should be proud of this team.”

Internacional coach Celso Roth was gracious in defeat after falling short of leading the Brazilian club to their second Club World Cup title.

“We had great expectations and we are saying that publicly,” Roth said.

“People were expecting a final between Internacional and Inter Milan, but we knew this game would be complicated and it was.”

“We cannot say we didn’t do our best, but it is the best team that scores and wins.”

“Mazembe took their chances, defended well and football is like that. You can dominate, but if you can’t score it’s no good.”

“We created a lot of chances, at least six in each half, but their goalkeeper was very good and it worries me that my strikers could not get the goals despite there being so many chances.”

“I’ve said it before from the last World Cup too that it was time for an African country to win something. Things like this happen and we have to deal with it.”