By Harry Awurumibe, Editor, Abuja Bureau
With both Morocco and Senegal already qualified for the quarter final of the on-going CAF Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON), following their two earlier victories, the hosts are determined to make to finish top of Group A by beating Senegal in today’s last group match selected for Complexe Moulay Abdallah, Rabat.
Although the winner takes all ties between the Atlas Lionesses and Lionesses of Teranga will go on simultaneously with the encounter between Burkina Faso and Uganda, all attention will focus on the Coach Reynald Pedros-tutored Moroccan senior women’s football team who will like to maintain their 100% record in the competition and to avoid a tough opponent in the quarter final round starting next week.
Pedros who is one of the most experienced coaches in this year’s TotalEnergies WAFCON has already expressed his desire to win every match in the tournament to show his intention to take Moroccan women’s football to greater heights.
The tactician guided French women’s football giants Lyon to their 12th and 13th French topflight league titles and the third and fourth UEFA Women’s Champions League crowns during his two year stint between 2017 and 2019. He was voted as the best women’s coach at the FIFA Awards in 2018.
The 50-year old took over as Head coach of the Moroccan side in 2020, and has since hit the ground running. He has led the Lionesses to eight wins in 10 outings and is expected to lead them to glory at the continent showpiece on home soil.
Elsewhere, Burkina Faso and Uganda who are hoping for their first win in Morocco will battle hard enough to achieve that purpose which will give them a lifeline to remain in the tournament if they are adjudged as one of the two best group finishers to complete the field of eight quarter finalists.
Both countries that will face each other tonight at Casablanca’s sprawling Mohammed V Complex still have much at stake as three points can guarantee passage to the next round after both had lost two matches on a bounce.
Indeed, the prospect of progression is a huge motivating factor for the Burkinabe and Ugandan coaches even as Burkina Faso coach Pascal Sawadogo, has in his pre-match press conference said: “We are at the foot of the wall. The equation is simple: either we win and we can pass, or we lose and we go home”.
Also, Uganda midfielder, Fanzia Najjemba, has said before the game that: “We are aware that we have made many mistakes during our previous games at WAFCON. We, as players, talked a lot and exchanged our thoughts on this. Each of us, old or new, has spoken. In training, I felt we applied ourselves better this week and our coach has given us good instructions ahead of the Burkina Faso match, which we now have to execute”.
The above statements mean that both teams will come up with their A game as their will be no room for mistakes as both did in their previous two matches in Morocco.
Even with victory for one of them tonight, a long wait looms to see whether they would be one of the third placed finishers to qualify for the knockout phase.
