Mali coach Diané Nouhoum has praised his side after coming back from a two-goal deficit to salvage a point against a tough Angola side at the TotalEnergies African Nations Championship on Monday.

The Eagles snatched a point after going down 3-1 before forcing the 3-3 draw against the Palancas Negras in a thrilling encounter at the Miloud Hadefi Stadium in the Algerian city of Oran.

Angola took the lead as early as the 12th minute through Joao Diogo aka Depu but Hamidou Sinayoko drew level 11 minutes later.

As if the game did not have enough drama already, Depu gave Angola the lead much to the celebration of his team-mates including those off the bench and into the corner of the stadium.

When it seemed that Angola had run away with the game in the second half with 13 minutes to play, eventual man-of-the-match Yoro Diaby headed home to bring back hope to the Mali squad. Ousmane Coulibaly finished the job in the 83rd minute with the much-deserved equalizer.

“Impossible is nothing. We Malians do not give up. We kept believing even when the odds were against us in the game. We kept fighting and we eventually got a positive result in this very tough game,” Nouhoum said after the game.

“We came back from behind and this is the best thing that I can ask from my team. Of course, we have a different team from the one that reached the final two years ago in Cameroon, but we are proud of today’s performance.”

The Eagles, who are playing in their fifth CHAN appearance, have now gone four straight editions without losing their opening game at the continental tournament organized for players featuring in their local leagues.

Mali’s record in the opening games is now two wins, two draws and a loss including defeating Nigeria 2-1 in 2014 in South Africa before drawing 2-2 against Uganda two years later in Rwanda.

The Eagles opened with 1-0 victory against Burkina Faso last time out in 2020 in Cameroon and before putting up a stellar performance to avoid defeat and hold Angola to a 3-3 draw in Algeria.