{"id":14804,"date":"2022-04-25T16:57:51","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T16:57:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/uncategorized\/tom-reacts-to-afcon-draw-with-cautious-optimism"},"modified":"2022-04-25T17:35:20","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T17:35:20","slug":"tom-reacts-to-afcon-draw-with-cautious-optimism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-reacts-to-afcon-draw-with-cautious-optimism","title":{"rendered":"Tom reacts to Afcon draw with cautious optimism"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>Coach Tom Saintfiet who guided Gambia to its maiden AFCON in Cameroon this year and an eventual sixth place finish had reacted to last week\u2019s qualifying draw for the next tournament in Ivory Coast next year. He told the GFF Media that the draw is very interesting and potentially a very competitive one. \u201cIt\u2019s not the easiest group but also not the most difficult. I think all the four teams are at a similar level so it will be tough for all four teams because they can win against each other and they can lose against each other. There\u2019s no one favourite. We don\u2019t have a big footballing nation like Nigeria, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco or Senegal in our group. However Mali is good and we know that from the Afcon in Cameroon. As for Congo Brazzaville and South Sudan, they too are good footballing nations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Tom added that his team needs to be consistent and not drop unnecessary points. \u201cAnd in the end we\u2019ll have to see if there will be enough points to see us through as one of the top two,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Saintfiet however emphasised the group is not an easy group. \u201cI see some reactions from some people calling it an easy group but it is not. Congo Brazzaville is better ranked than us on the Fifa ranking and they\u2019ve a good team of Europe-based professionals. Mali is naturally a good country for many years. We played against South Sudan last year and they\u2019re not an easy opponent and developing very fast. So, we need to be focused and have respect for our opponents and not to underrate or underestimate any opponent and then we could have a fair chance to qualify. But we\u2019ve to work for it. It won\u2019t be that easy but we\u2019re used to this kind of matches and as a coach I\u2019m looking forward to starting these qualifiers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The coach also went ahead to reveal the history between his team and the three teams in the group. \u201cIt may be interesting to know that we played all these three countries in the last two years. We met Mali in the Afcon and drew 1-1 last January and last October, we beat South Sudan 2-1 in Morocco. In October 2020 we defeated Congo Brazzaville 1-0 in Portugal. But all those were friendlies and they\u2019re in the past. Now we\u2019ve to look to the future and like I said it\u2019s a very competitive group and in the end three teams will be in contention for the two available places in the group,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Gambia. Coach Tom Saintfiet who guided Gambia to its maiden AFCON in Cameroon this year and an eventual sixth place finish had reacted to last week\u2019s qualifying draw for the next tournament in Ivory Coast next year. He told the GFF Media that the draw is very interesting and potentially a very competitive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":14803,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,8,17],"tags":[2355,2361,6085,260,5155],"class_list":["post-14804","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-cautious-optimism","tag-gambia","tag-tom"],"yoast_head":"\nTom reacts to Afcon draw with cautious optimism - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Coach Tom Saintfiet who guided Gambia to its maiden AFCON in Cameroon this year and an eventual sixth place finish had r ...\" \/>\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\/tom-reacts-to-afcon-draw-with-cautious-optimism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tom reacts to Afcon draw with cautious optimism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Coach Tom Saintfiet who guided Gambia to its maiden AFCON in Cameroon this year and an eventual sixth place finish had r ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-reacts-to-afcon-draw-with-cautious-optimism\" \/>\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=\"2022-04-25T16:57:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-04-25T17:35:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2022\/04\/img-6266dbb824c7d.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"810\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"540\" \/>\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\/tom-reacts-to-afcon-draw-with-cautious-optimism#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-reacts-to-afcon-draw-with-cautious-optimism\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Tom reacts to Afcon draw with cautious optimism\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-04-25T16:57:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-04-25T17:35:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-reacts-to-afcon-draw-with-cautious-optimism\"},\"wordCount\":467,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-reacts-to-afcon-draw-with-cautious-optimism#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2022\/04\/img-6266dbb824c7d.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"cautious optimism\",\"Gambia\",\"TOM\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"homepage-english\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-reacts-to-afcon-draw-with-cautious-optimism#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-reacts-to-afcon-draw-with-cautious-optimism\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-reacts-to-afcon-draw-with-cautious-optimism\",\"name\":\"Tom reacts to Afcon draw with cautious optimism - 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