Cairo, Egypt (PANA) - Stephen Keshi, the Nigerian-born coach of the Togolese national football team has expressed optimism that the "Hawks" of Lome would uplift their performance before the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals kicking in Germany in June.

"We put up a great performance (against Angola) as we levelled the score twice although we were reduced to ten players," Keshi told a post-match press conference here on Sunday.

Togo lost its third Africa Cup of Nations match in row after bowing (2-3) to Angola on Sunday evening in Cairo.

"We will improve and develop our pattern of play at the World Cup, provided the team is allowed to prepare for three or four weeks before the competition and accorded the required funds," he added.

Meawhile, Keshi quashed media claims that the star Togolese player Emmanuel Adebayor missed the line-up because of their disagreements. He told journalists that Adebayor was on the injury list.

On the other hand, the Angolan coach, Luis Goncalves expressed his disappointment for failing to qualify for the CAN quarterfinals later this week in spite of its victory over Togo on Sunday.

"We never lost hope until the last minute, but we finally ended with only four points and have therefore been eliminated in the first round. We failed to achieve our objective," he told journalists.

Togo and Angola caused a sensation last year when they qualified for the first time to participate in the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany at the expense of big guns in Africa, including Cameroon, Nigeria, Senegal, Egypt and Morocco.