{"id":49707,"date":"2023-12-20T18:01:57","date_gmt":"2023-12-20T18:01:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/?p=49707"},"modified":"2023-12-20T16:48:54","modified_gmt":"2023-12-20T16:48:54","slug":"tom-plots-surprises-against-under-pressure-senegal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-plots-surprises-against-under-pressure-senegal","title":{"rendered":"TOM PLOTS SURPRISES AGAINST UNDER-PRESSURE SENEGAL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Gambia. <\/strong><\/span>Gambia coach speaks on Afcon opener against champions<\/b><\/p>\n

With about three weeks to go before the Gambia and Senegal meet in the Africa Cup of Nations in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, Gambia coach Tom Saintfiet has said group opponents like Senegal and the rest are under more pressure than his side in this year\u2019s tournament.<\/p>\n

He admitted though that this second appearance of the Scorpions will be more difficult than the 2021 edition in Cameroon where his team reached the quarter finals.<\/p>\n

Speaking in an interview with Afrik-foot, Gambia Saintfiet said The Gambia belongs to the group of death which include reigning African champion, Senegal and last edition\u2019s semifinalist Cameroon, two great footballing countries who played in the last World Cup in Qatar.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is also Guinea with one of the best scorers in the German Championship Sehrou Guirassy.<\/p>\n

So, it\u2019s a very difficult group. But as a coach, with my team, we never approach a match with the idea of ??losing; we want to win every match, to qualify for the second round and we know that it will be more difficult than the last time,\u201d Saintfiet said.<\/p>\n

He said while The Gambia was a surprise package in Cameroon, \u2018today everyone knows our qualities.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWe also have a few injured players as well as players without a club; we only have three players in the first division of the eight best leagues in Europe. We do not have high-level systems like Senegal, Cameroon, and Guinea. So, we are not the same team of last Afcon,\u201d Saintfiet lamented.<\/p>\n

But he said he and his team will start this tournament with an ambition to work miracles. \u201c\u2019We are very realistic, we know that it will be very difficult, but we will go there to achieve good results,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He continued to explain his side\u2019s challenges: \u201cThere are players like the former As Roma, Ebrima Darboe, injured for more than a year but has started again two weeks ago and maybe he will be ready. In total five players who were at Can 2021 will not be available this time round as some have even stopped playing football while others have not found a club. But I\u2019m not the type of coach to look for excuses. We will make do with the players available and do everything possible to achieve good results, even if we know that we are not one of the favorite.\u201d<\/p>\n

Saintfiet said pressure is more on Senegal, Guinea, and Cameroon as \u2018we will do everything on our side to create a surprise\u2019. \u201cMy team has proven before that it\u2019s not the names of the players that matter. We played Guinea and won with players from only the 4th division in Switzerland, and Sweden. Imagine winning against a team with almost all players from top leagues in Europe. Everything is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

On The Gambia finishing among the three finalists teams of the year at Caf awards, Saintfiet said: \u201cIt\u2019s something special, a great honor and I am very proud of our work, of my staff, of my players, but also of my Federation. It is something unique to be ranked alongside large countries like Senegal and Morocco. We don\u2019t know if this will happen again in the future.\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. Gambia coach speaks on Afcon opener against champions With about three weeks to go before the Gambia and Senegal meet in the Africa Cup of Nations in Yamoussoukro, Ivory Coast, Gambia coach Tom Saintfiet has said group opponents like Senegal and the rest are under more pressure than his side in this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":49706,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[2355,2361,260],"class_list":["post-49707","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":"\nTOM PLOTS SURPRISES AGAINST UNDER-PRESSURE SENEGAL - Gambia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gambia coach speaks on Afcon opener against champions With about three weeks to go before the Gambia and Senegal ...\" \/>\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-plots-surprises-against-under-pressure-senegal\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"TOM PLOTS SURPRISES AGAINST UNDER-PRESSURE SENEGAL\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Gambia coach speaks on Afcon opener against champions With about three weeks to go before the Gambia and Senegal ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-plots-surprises-against-under-pressure-senegal\" \/>\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=\"2023-12-20T18:01:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/12\/sm_1703078253.647174.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"607\" \/>\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\/tom-plots-surprises-against-under-pressure-senegal#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-plots-surprises-against-under-pressure-senegal\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"TOM PLOTS SURPRISES AGAINST UNDER-PRESSURE SENEGAL\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-12-20T18:01:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-plots-surprises-against-under-pressure-senegal\"},\"wordCount\":563,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-plots-surprises-against-under-pressure-senegal#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/gambia\/sites\/19\/2023\/12\/sm_1703078253.647174.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\/tom-plots-surprises-against-under-pressure-senegal#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-plots-surprises-against-under-pressure-senegal\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/gambia\/all-news\/tom-plots-surprises-against-under-pressure-senegal\",\"name\":\"TOM PLOTS SURPRISES AGAINST UNDER-PRESSURE SENEGAL - 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