After Tuesday’s draw for Cameroon 2021 the Gambia national team coach Tom Saintfiet has remarked that Gambia will be ready to take on her opponents as equals.
The Gambia is placed in Group F alongside Mauritania, Tunisia and Mali with the first match for The Scorpions taking place on Wednesday 12th January at the Limbe Stadium in the South West region of Cameroon.
Speaking to the Gambia Football Federation media, Saintfiet said of the draw: “I think we can be very happy with the draw. If you’d asked me before the draw what is your wish list or what is your dream draw, I think this draw comes close to what I wanted”.
He continued: “In Afcon there are no easy opponents so we can never underestimate any opponent because all the countries that qualified are strong. But naturally with Tunisia I think we have a good opponent as well as Mali and Mauritania who are our neighbouring countries. We could’ve had, maybe on paper, stronger opponents in Pot 2 like Egypt, Ghana, or Ivory Coast. But it looks like a competitive group and we will have opportunities so as a coach I think naturally we’re very happy with the draw”.
However, the Belgian hastened to caution that we shouldn’t ignore the fact that the team is making its first appearance and therefore the objective is going there to learn and experience it and then see how far we can reach.
With the Scorpions’ group to be based in Limbe, 311 kilometers from the capital Yaoundé, Saintfiet and Team Manager Ousman Drammeh who attended the draw took the opportunity to travel to Limbe in the South-West rgion of Cameroon to get firsthand information on the facilities ahead of the championship.
“We visited the stadium where we will play our three matches; the hotels and training infrastructure. Everything looks fine. The team manager and I are checking everything and we will be ready. We have a lot of information and we can start the real preparations finally,” the coach concluded.
GFF media
