2026 WCQ: Olunga declares Stars ready for Ivory Coast challenge as Firat decries team injuries

Harambee Stars skipper Michael Olunga says that Kenya is “really ready” for their upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers match against defending Africa Cup of Nations champions Ivory Coast, and takes the slightest of positives from last Friday’s 1-1 team draw with Burundi.

Olunga, who was joined by a rather discontent figure of head coach Engin Firat, was speaking at Monday’s team presser in Lilongwe, Malawi - the venue for their fourth game in Group F set to be played at the Bingu National Stadium on Tuesday with kickoff at 1600 EAT.

Ready for the challenge

Already faced with an uphill task of making it out of the group, Harambee Stars, now playing their “home” matches away from home, made their chances of qualification even harder on Friday when they conceded a late equalizer to Burundi, to see them remain third with four points.

Questioned about the state of the team heading into another key game off the back of that result, Olunga said: “We really wanted to take the maximum points [against Burundi] and it was unfortunate at the end that we couldn’t do it. Of course it was a setback, but if you look at it, we still got one point, and I believe that every game matters.

2026WCQ: Abuya strike not enough as Burundi rally to hold Kenya in Malawi

“Now, the team is really focused on the next assignment against the African champions who we know will pose a different threat than that of Burundi. However, each and every game we have to plan and come up with a way to counter the opponent.

“It will not be easy but the boys are up for the challenge tomorrow.”

All plans are broken - Firat

Harambee Stars coach Firat on the other hand seemed to veer completely away from building up any hopes, to finding almost every possible excuse for a looming defeat in his eyes.

On Tuesday’s gameplan, he said: “The whole picture now is a different one because when the draw was made, I had different plans than today. Normally my plan was to sit in Nairobi and play tomorrow in front of 40,000 Kenyans.”

Not the plan per se, but yet another shot to the Kenyan Government and Federation, for not hosting a game in the country.

As it happened: Engin Firat mad as Harambee Stars are forced to play away from home

But then he added: “When you make the plans, even against Burundi, we had eight players from the ones who we had invited missing, and now one more will miss tomorrow.

“Therefore, all plans have gone broken, and we are not a country who can really replace every player. At the moment we have a team full of local players. Ask the Ivorians when is the last time they had a local player play in their national team.”

Harambee Stars pair set to miss Ivory Coast game

Among the local-based players called up in recent days as “replacements” include: David Okoth, Clifton Miheso, David ‘Cheche’ Ochieng and Baron Ochieng.