Malawi fans gave Kenyan players a standing ovation as they walked back to the dressing room after holding Ivory Coast to a goalless draw in their Group F World Cup qualifier match.
A determined Kenyan outfit proved the home fans wrong despite their earlier prediction that Kenyans would be thrashed thoroughly by the African champions.
After watching Kenyans draw with Burundi at the same venue last week, the general concensus was that the tie against the Stars would be a walk in the park for the star-studded West Africans but this never came to pass.
The Kenyan players got good support from their home fans who travelled all the way to cheer them on.
Stars Coach Engin Firat sung the praises for his boys unlike his counterpart Emarse Fae who blamed the outcome on their own undoing on the field.
Speaking in the Malawian capital Lilongwe, Captain Michael Olunga sounded quite febrile saying his teammates had learned from setbacks and mistakes during their encounter with Burundi.
"If you look at the caliber of players in the Ivory Coast side, most of them play in top European Leagues and had standout players like Franck Kessié and Simon Adingra, the young boy from Brighton. They have a good center-back also playing in the EPL so it’s majorly a complete side," the skipper said.
"We respect them in all aspects, they are the African champions but like I said this is a football game and a different context from the Afcon, it’s more of how we look in our team and how we want to go out there and try to explore their weaknesses, " Olunga added.
Kenya and Cote D'Ivoire are pooled in Group F alongside Gambia, Gabon, Burundi and Seychelles for a chance to feature in the world's biggest sporting event in 2026.
Countries have been divided into nine pools of six teams with one winner from each group earning direct qualification to the World Cup in Canada, Mexico and the USA.
The best four group runners-up will enter the playoffs where the winning team will qualify for an inter-confederation tournament in March 2026.
Kenya lost 1-2 to Gabon in the opening match, beat Seychelles 5-0 before settling for a 1-1 draw with Burundi last week.
