By Harry Awurumibe, Editor Abuja Bureau
Senegal’s Teranga Lionesses are 90 minutes away from being the first team to qualify for the second round of the on-going 12th CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) in Morocco if they beat fellow West Africans, Lady Stallions (Etalons Dames) of Burkina Faso Tuesday night at Complexes Moulay Abdellah in Rabat in the second match of Group A.
Also, the Burkinabes must win to be able to maintain their chances of qualifying for the next round after losing their first match 1-0 to hosts, Morocco last Saturday.
Prompt News reports that a victory for the Teranga Lionesses will send them through to the tournament’s second round while a second defeat will spell doom for Burkina Faso as they face early elimination from the competition.
However, it will be a tricky match as this will be the first time the two countries will meet and the coach of Burkina Faso, Pascal Sawodogo, is well aware of the task that awaits him and his team, although he remains optimistic.
“Our state of mind is good and we learned a lot from the first game. If we put in the same desire as we did in the second half of the match against Morocco, there is a way to get something from the match,” says Sawodogo.
The captain of Lady Stallions, Charlotte Millogo, said at a pre-match conference that despite their opening day defeat, there was a healthy atmosphere within the group.
“The defeat against Morocco is already forgotten. We are focused on the match against Senegal. We followed them yesterday against Uganda and we know what we have to do,” says Millogo.
The physical toll of the tournament’s early stages may have a say in this meeting, as the Lionesses have had one day less recovery time than their opponents.
It is a situation that, however, does not worry Senegal coach Mame Moussa Cissé, who says “it matters yes, but it’s not a determining factor. We will have to adapt”.
“We wanted to start this WAFCON with a victory. It’s done. I have read everywhere that it was a historic victory, but it is ridiculous. After the game, the players partied in the locker room, but right after we stopped gloating. We immediately focused on our goal. If we win, we qualify for the second round and that’s the most important thing today,” says Cissé.
A qualification for the second round would indeed be historic for Senegal and more particularly for its captain, Safiétou Sagna.
“Of course, after our first victory I was moved. I was there, with the selection that participated in WAFCON in 2012. To be able to qualify and write a page of Senegalese football as captain would be incredible,” said the veteran Sagna, who is leading her team back to the tournament after a 10-year absence.
By evoking the generation of the Senegalese selection that had played the 2012 competition, coach Cissé wanted to pay tribute to the player who had led the team a decade ago, and also to the coach back then, who is now also part of the technical staff of the Lionesses.
“I would like to take this opportunity to salute the enormous work of a great gentleman, who was a coach in 2012 and who is now part of our staff.
He has written a page in the history of Senegalese football and he continues to write about it. His name is Bassouaré Diaby and it is obligatory to pay tribute to him,” says Cissé warmly.
The meeting promises to be an exciting duel, between two teams desperate to continue their continental adventure in the north.
