U17 Qualifying Tournament: Senegal’s Loss Leaves Coach Disappointed

This setback affects the entire Senegalese team. On Thursday, October 8, Guinea and Senegal ended their match in a 1-1 draw during the U17/UFOA AFCON qualifying tournament in Mali.

A key refereeing decision changed the course of the game. At a press conference, Ousmane Diop shared his thoughts:

“What concerns me is the refereeing. It’s unfortunate; they could have performed better. However, we won’t dwell on it. We can’t say he officiated poorly; perhaps it wasn’t intentional. Just like our coaches, we don’t want to play badly. Sometimes these situations occur, and we have to accept them; it’s not the end of the world. It’s regrettable because we were ahead until the last moments, before they equalized with a rather debatable penalty,” said the Lionceaux coach.

Tactically, he feels his players were more concerned with preserving the lead than playing the game:

“We scored very early. Unfortunately, they are young, and they wanted to maintain the score. This caused us to lose our tactical focus and respond to the opponent’s rhythm, even though we had asked them to stay calm and adhere to our strategy. But that didn’t happen. We’ll address that. We created many chances. As always, the issue is finishing. Today, we had opportunities but can only look back with regret. That’s football.”

Currently, with two points from two matches, Senegal stands third in the group, trailing Mauritania, who defeated Sierra Leone (2-1) and moved into second place. The next match is Sunday at 3 p.m. against Mauritania.