By Neto Baptiste
Coach of the Antigua and Barbuda Benna Boys Mikele Leigertwood said the team must look ahead following back-to-back losses to Cuba in Group A of the Concacaf Nations League in the space of four days.
The senior national team was beaten 3-1 on Sunday in Cuba after going under 2-0 to the same opposition last Thursday in Montserrat.
“We want to make sure we give ourselves the best opportunity by making sure we evaluate certainly the last four games and everything on a whole because that’s important to see what we can do and how we can get better to give us the best chance of playing our next fixture,” he said.
Playing at the Estadio Antonio Maceo located in Santiago, Cuba, the home team was propelled by a hattrick from Arichel Hernandez with goals in minutes 16 and 20 to put Cuba up 2-0 at the half.
Antigua and Barbuda pulled within one just six minutes into the second half when D’Andre Bishop netted in minute 61, but Hernandez would complete his three-goal blitz with a close-range effort in minute 63.
Leigertwood said it was a ‘difficult’ couple of games.
“Obviously, two difficult games against tough opposition, but the positive for us is that we kept going to the end. We didn’t give up and everybody who was on the pitch gave their all. We had to make a lot of changes in the second game in particular due to injuries and bits and pieces but the first half was tough. We adopted our formation second half to sort of counteract their threat and it obviously seemed to have quite a good impact. Obviously with that when you risk it a little bit you leave yourself vulnerable at times,” he said.
Antigua and Barbuda remains third in the four-team standings with six points from four matches while Cuba sits at the top of Group A with nine points from the same number of showings. Guadeloupe lay second also with nine points
The Benna Boys will take on Guadeloupe on 23 March, 2023 before facing Barbados three days later.