Harambee Stars head coach Engin Firat has expressed confidence in the ability of his squad to surprise opponents in the ongoing 2026 Fifa World Cup qualification campaign.
Kenya shook off a heart-wrenching 2-1 defeat to Gabon in their opening encounter to thrash Seychelles 5-0 in Ivory Coast in their second fixture on Monday night.
Captain Michael Olunga netted a brace while Masoud Juma, Rooney Onyango, and debutant Benson Omalla scored a goal apiece to condemn the hapless Pirates to their second consecutive defeat in the tournament.
Firat reckons his charges should have run over Seychelles a lot more if they had not squandered the numerous opportunities that came their way.
"The only disappointing thing for me is that we were unable to register historic results. We lost so many goal-scoring chances and I'm not so happy about the outcome," Firat said.
"I believe that if we continue with this good performance and have all our squad members back by June, then we will be in a position to yield good results."
The Turkish gaffer said Kenya will leverage their home matches to crack maximum points after registering mixed results in their two opening encounters abroad.
"We are ready to show the world who we are. Very soon everyone will view us as a miracle because we will be able to register results never seen before in the country," Firat stated.
"People should not forget that we are the only team that played all our two matches away from home so we have an advantage even if we started with a loss. We have a good chance to perform well against Burundi and Ivory Coast in June."
Firat, however, warned his players not to underestimate any team in the tournament.
"All in all, we've seen what I said about this group. You never know what happens the next moment. Many people fancied Gambia to post good results right from the beginning because they have a quality squad. But they could not collect a point from their two matches," Firat observed.
Firat said they would seek more training time to allow the new call-ups to gel with the rest of the squad.
"People must have also realised by now that this is a different Harambee Stars squad. We have a squad that is hungry for success. We also have some young people in the squad who are still learning and that portends well for our future," he added.
"We lost our key central defenders and brought in Dennis Ng'ang'a, who performed so well and that clearly shows that given a chance, young players can comfortably step into the shoes of their senior colleagues," added Firat.
The win means Kenya have three points in Group F, the same as Burundi but with a superior goal difference of positive four.
Ivory Coast, who humbled Gambia 2-0 on Monday are top of the log with six points.
Gabon are second with maximum six points — against Kenya and Burundi — but with a comparatively inferior goal difference compared to Ivory Coast.
