The Leopards enter the dance this Friday at 5 p.m. They tease the Syli National of Guinea. This meeting which must set the colors for the rest of the campaign, is of very significant importance on the accounting level. Desabre who must not make a mistake, will have to make strong choices, in order to compose with an equipped eleven capable of grabbing the precious three points. The competition among the goalkeepers as in other positions, is more obvious.

The Congolese coach certainly has some material to savor during this new journey. Who among Lionel Mpasi, Dimitri Bertaud, Fayulu will keep the perches? Desabre faces a fair rivalry, be it, in this sector which is only increasing "in value compared to last year and two years ago", he confided to the microphone of the communication department of the Congolese Federation of Association Football (FECOFA). A reality which is far from being a headache.  

The Frenchman thinks that "The goalkeeper position is the same as that of players. It depends on the player's form and what he brings to the selection. We are lucky to have three good goalkeepers," he emphasizes. Aligning with this order, however, would implicitly predispose Fayulu (540 minutes in all competitions): the only one to have more playing time in club at the start of the season in contrast to Bertaud (0 minutes) and Mpasi (90 minutes). Even if the evidence turns everything upside down with the return of Lionel, one of the artisans of the Leopards' surge in Ivory Coast in January and the presence of Bertaud; clean and irreproachable in his last two outings, against Senegal and Togo in June. In his four starts, he remains on three clean sheets.

The national coach Desabre also leaves the way open to all three, according to him because all "the players know that in the DRC selection, places are expensive in the 23 as in the eleven". For Desabre, the principle for them "is to bring what they have to bring; whether he plays or is a substitute. It's a state of mind that I want. It's a global reflection. So, there will be a goalkeeper who will be aligned against Guinea, who will perhaps not be the same against Ethiopia and against Tanzania", he says.

  The reunion on Friday between Leopards and Syli keeps us in suspense seven months after their last face-to-face in the quarter-finals of the Ivorian CAN turned to the advantage of the Congolese (3-1). The two completely reinvigorated selections appear as the serious favorites to qualify in this group H, at least on paper given the FIFA indices.