{"id":43243,"date":"2023-09-21T16:17:04","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T16:17:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?p=43243"},"modified":"2023-09-21T13:17:56","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T13:17:56","slug":"gambia-never-intend-to-play-defensive-formation-against-congo-brazzaville","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambia-never-intend-to-play-defensive-formation-against-congo-brazzaville","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Gambia never intend to play defensive formation against Congo Brazzaville\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>Tom Saintfiet, head coach of The Gambia National team has stated that they never intended to play defensive football during their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier match against Congo Brazzaville.<\/b><\/p>\n

The Gambia secured a place in the continent\u2019s bi-annual biggest football fiesta following dramatic 2-2 draw against Congo Brazzaville in Marrakech, Morocco on Sunday 10th September 2023.<\/p>\n

The Gambia and Congo Brazzaville qualifier match went ahead despite the devastating earthquake which hit the Moroccan city, killing over 2,000 people.<\/p>\n

The Red Devils of Congo Brazzaville took an early 2-0 lead through Gaius Makouta and Silvere Ganvoula M\u2019boussy in the 30th and 45+1 minute of the first half.<\/p>\n

Substitutes Yankuba Minteh and Muhammed Badamosi leveled matters for The Gambia in the 79th and 90th minute of the match respectively to earn the Scorpions a place in the Africa Cup of Nation for the second time in their history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe never have the intention to play defensively.<\/p>\n

We played with three strikers Musa Barrow, Assan Ceesay and Ebrima Colley in front, with Hamza Barry and Alassan Manneh, two skillful midfielders behind them.<\/p>\n

We played in a very offensive formation,\u201d said the Scorpions coach in an interview.<\/p>\n

He added that they wanted to play in the first half like they did in the second half, adding that the intention and the mission was for Musa Barrow, Assan Ceesay and Ebrima Colley to make most of the attacking but they couldn\u2019t due to their nervousness and emotion of the earthquake incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the first half, we were so emotional, stress and didn\u2019t come out but at half time, I told the boys to relax and not to think about scoring goals in the first half to bring confidence back in our way of playing.<\/p>\n

He noted that in the second half they brought in new players (who couldn\u2019t play more than 45 minutes as advised by their medical reports) in with the hope that they could turn things around.<\/p>\n

\u201cAblie Jallow is normally a starter but he had only played 30 minutes in two months with Metz.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018We couldn\u2019t bring him earlier due to his medical report advised by his club that was the reason.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018We kept other players like Yankuba Minteh, Ablie Jallow and Muhammed Badamosi for other purposes,\u2019\u2019 Coach Saintfiet explained.<\/p>\n

Even if it was goalless, we would\u2019ve brought these players in to make some changes to make a difference in the second half,\u2019\u2019 he said.<\/p>\n

According to him, it is not that they woke up and wanted to play different football, adding that they always wanted to play the same football like in the second half.<\/p>\n

\u2018\u2018The only thing in the first half; we were too nervous and didn\u2019t do what was expected but in the second half, we brought the confidence back and proved that we were the best team,\u201d Coach Saintfiet pointed out.<\/p>\n

He revealed that they have an honest feeling that they were going to come back during the second period, looking at how they were pushing, possessing and creating chances in the second half.<\/p>\n

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

Africa-Press – Gambia. Tom Saintfiet, head coach of The Gambia National team has stated that they never intended to play defensive football during their 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier match against Congo Brazzaville. The Gambia secured a place in the continent\u2019s bi-annual biggest football fiesta following dramatic 2-2 draw against Congo Brazzaville in Marrakech, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":43242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[2355,2361,260],"class_list":["post-43243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-gambia","tag-gambia"],"yoast_head":"\n\u2018Gambia never intend to play defensive formation against Congo Brazzaville\u2019 - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tom Saintfiet, head coach of The Gambia National team has stated that they never intended to play defensive football ...\" \/>\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\/gambia-never-intend-to-play-defensive-formation-against-congo-brazzaville\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"\u2018Gambia never intend to play defensive formation against Congo Brazzaville\u2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tom Saintfiet, head coach of The Gambia National team has stated that they never intended to play defensive football ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambia-never-intend-to-play-defensive-formation-against-congo-brazzaville\" \/>\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=\"2023-09-21T16:17:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/09\/sm_1695289468.683257.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1280\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\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=\"3 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\/gambia-never-intend-to-play-defensive-formation-against-congo-brazzaville#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambia-never-intend-to-play-defensive-formation-against-congo-brazzaville\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"\u2018Gambia never intend to play defensive formation against Congo Brazzaville\u2019\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-21T16:17:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambia-never-intend-to-play-defensive-formation-against-congo-brazzaville\"},\"wordCount\":532,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambia-never-intend-to-play-defensive-formation-against-congo-brazzaville#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/09\/sm_1695289468.683257.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Gambia\",\"Gambia\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambia-never-intend-to-play-defensive-formation-against-congo-brazzaville#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambia-never-intend-to-play-defensive-formation-against-congo-brazzaville\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/gambia-never-intend-to-play-defensive-formation-against-congo-brazzaville\",\"name\":\"\u2018Gambia never intend to play defensive formation against Congo Brazzaville\u2019 - 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