Sellas Tetteh has hailed the tactical awareness of his Sierra Leone players after holding champions Ivory Coast to a goalless draw in their Group I of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.
The Ghanaian coach supervised Leone Stars to hold the defending African champions in Port Harcourt on Sunday, just three weeks after taking over the side in the qualifiers.
Sierra Leone hosted the Ivoirians in Nigeria, as the Ebola-affected country is yet to be allowed to welcome its opponents in Freetown.
In the absence of several of their key players, including skipper Yaya Touré, defensive midfielder Cheick Tioté, winger Max Gradel and star striker Wilfried Bony, the defending champions struggled to cause problems to their host despite enjoying most of the possession.
Sierra Leone had chances of their own during the encounter, but failed to capitalise on their few opportunities but Tetteh hailed his players for playing strictly according to instructions and admits it was not easy.
"The game was two halves. The first half was quite balanced, which was equally interesting," Tetteh said.
"The second half, though one sided, but also in our few counter attacks, we were too dangerous."
Tetteh said his team played a tactical game which worked to perfection against the highly fancied Ivorians.
"This is a game, tactically, it worked perfectly for us. We did less mistakes, we did more of the covering ups, we did more of the tackling and i think we did it very well,'' he said.
The result sees the two sides tied on one point after two games, two points adrift of group leaders Sudan.
Thrashed 4-0 by Gabon in Libreville on Saturday, the Sudanese remain however at the top of Group I as the defeat is not counted for the standings, with the Panthers already qualified for the final tournament as hosts.