{"id":10101,"date":"2022-02-03T20:33:15","date_gmt":"2022-02-03T20:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/saintfiet-targets-spot-in-2026-world-cup-finals-with-the-gambia"},"modified":"2022-02-03T20:51:15","modified_gmt":"2022-02-03T20:51:15","slug":"saintfiet-targets-spot-in-2026-world-cup-finals-with-the-gambia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/saintfiet-targets-spot-in-2026-world-cup-finals-with-the-gambia","title":{"rendered":"Saintfiet targets spot in 2026 World Cup finals with The Gambia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>The Belgian tactician has already made history with the Scorpions and is now eyeing a bigger achievement with the West Africans Coach Tom Saintfiet has set his sights on \u2018developing\u2019 The Gambia in a bid to see them commanding respect in Africa and also qualifying for the 2026 Fifa World Cup finals.<\/p>\n

The Scorpions \u2013 making their debut appearance at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations finals \u2013 are one of the surprise teams in Cameroon having reached the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

The West Africans finished as runners-up in Group F having garnered seven points from three matches, recording victories over Mauritania and Tunisia. In the Round of 16, they silenced Guinea 1-0 with Musa Barrow scoring the only goal of the game at Kouekong Stadium in Bafoussam.<\/p>\n

Ahead of Gambia\u2019s fixture against hosts Cameroon, the Belgian revealed his target is to ensure his side becomes a regular in the biennial African showpiece as well as secure qualification to the 2026 World Cup to be co-hosted by Canada, Mexico and the United States of Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to develop this team in order to get respect in Africa and this is the best objective because you can do a good tournament once and never qualify later, which isn\u2019t good,\u201d Saintfiet was quoted by BBC Sport Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are here to reach our limits, to build the team of the future, because I want The Gambia, not only in these quarter-finals but to be in 2023, 2025 [Nations Cups], and at the World Cup in 2026 when nine African countries will be able to participate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Victory over the Indomitable Lions will see the team ranked 150th in the world earn a place in the last four where they would square up against Egypt or Morocco for a place in the final.<\/p>\n

Regardless of the outcome at the Japoma Stadium in Douala, the 48-year-old stated that the main goal is building a team for the future. \u201cWe want to learn and be better in the future,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut now that we are here, we want to stay for a long time. What happens Saturday won\u2019t change a lot about our feelings but the team, the players and the staff we have one goal and we will see what is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Gambia<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. The Belgian tactician has already made history with the Scorpions and is now eyeing a bigger achievement with the West Africans Coach Tom Saintfiet has set his sights on \u2018developing\u2019 The Gambia in a bid to see them commanding respect in Africa and also qualifying for the 2026 Fifa World Cup finals. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":10100,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17],"tags":[2355,2361,4224,260,3534],"class_list":["post-10101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-homepage-english","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-finals","tag-gambia","tag-saintfiet"],"yoast_head":"\nSaintfiet targets spot in 2026 World Cup finals with The Gambia - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Belgian tactician has already made history with the Scorpions and is now eyeing a bigger achievement with the West A ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/saintfiet-targets-spot-in-2026-world-cup-finals-with-the-gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Saintfiet targets spot in 2026 World Cup finals with The Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Belgian tactician has already made history with the Scorpions and is now eyeing a bigger achievement with the West A ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/saintfiet-targets-spot-in-2026-world-cup-finals-with-the-gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Gambia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-02-03T20:33:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-02-03T20:51:15+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2022\/02\/img-61fc4026882c8.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/saintfiet-targets-spot-in-2026-world-cup-finals-with-the-gambia#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/saintfiet-targets-spot-in-2026-world-cup-finals-with-the-gambia\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Saintfiet targets spot in 2026 World Cup finals with The Gambia\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-02-03T20:33:15+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-02-03T20:51:15+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/saintfiet-targets-spot-in-2026-world-cup-finals-with-the-gambia\"},\"wordCount\":393,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/saintfiet-targets-spot-in-2026-world-cup-finals-with-the-gambia#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2022\/02\/img-61fc4026882c8.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"FINALS\",\"Gambia\",\"Saintfiet\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/saintfiet-targets-spot-in-2026-world-cup-finals-with-the-gambia#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/saintfiet-targets-spot-in-2026-world-cup-finals-with-the-gambia\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/saintfiet-targets-spot-in-2026-world-cup-finals-with-the-gambia\",\"name\":\"Saintfiet targets spot in 2026 World Cup finals with The Gambia - 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