Cameroon, The Gambia, not giving up on qualification to Round of 16

* This is an important game and we are ready for it, we absolutely need our three points—Coach Rigobert Song

* I don’t remember The Gambia beating Cameroon before, if we win 1-0, we will have a chance to qualify—Tom Saintfiet

Maravi Express

Cameroon play The Gambia this evening in a make-or-break encounter in the last round of Group C fixtures of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) Côte d’Ivoire 2023 — a repeat of the quarterfinal of the 2021 edition which Cameroon won 2-0 in front of their home fans in Douala.

A lot has changed from the last tournament to the ongoing one. Both Cameroon and Gambia have had a rough start and are still chasing their first win in Côte d’Ivoire.

The Indomitable Lions’ coach, Rigobert Song has faith in his current team to deliver in their all-important game while The Gambia’s Tom Saintfiet is still optimistic that they can achieve their target by qualifying despite the poor start.

“This is an important game and we are ready for it, we absolutely need our three points to help us progress to the knockout stage,” Rigobert Song told CAFonline.

“We know it won’t be easy to do, our other objective is to have a good game.  For Cameroon, we are trying to restructure our team, there are some people who were part of the previous team and are still here and what we can do is to prepare and give the best of ourselves.

“We are always learning, we are always at the learning phase and whatever the situation. We do commit errors, the fact that you are not winning means there is something lacking which you have to learn so my players have understood what was lacking, what it is now, we need to have the three points and hopefully, Cameroonians will have the joy they have been waiting for.”

His counterpart, Saintfiet expects the match to be a strong, saying: “I don’t remember The Gambia beating Cameroon before — if we win 1-0, we will have a chance to qualify for the next round.

“The most important thing for us is the three points.We always have a chance to stay in Côte d’Ivoire and qualify for the round of 16. This remains our ambition.

“Cameroon is very motivated and wants to win the match as well. The match will be difficult for us. We preferred to stay in the city of Yamoussoukro in order to prepare for this match, because we found comfort in the hotel in which we were staying, and on the day of the match we will travel to Bouaké.

Also playing tonight are Group D favorites, Algeria, who are still chasing their first win and they take to the field against Mauritania, who have lost all two games.

Algeria coach Djamel Belmadi describes the match as decisive, saying: “Let’s call a spade a spade — against Burkina we only conceded a corner, they only arrived once in our area. The psychological motivation to come back does not surprise me, I know my team, we don’t want to leave the competition.

“We will have to reduce errors the errors we commit, these are adjustments that we must make. By reducing errors as much as possible it will swing to our side. We can become more prolific, more precise in front of goals.

Mauritania’s Amir Abdou has insisted his side will put in everything to get their first historic win in the competition: “We are going to have a very important game against the favorite of this group.

“It is going to be a very complicated game and we know we are going to play against a very good team. This is a team that has lot of high quality players. We are not here to distribute points, we are here to do our best and we will do everything possible to be at the right level.

“We do acknowledge the level of the opponent. What we are looking for as Mauritania is our first victory. Algeria is looking for the title, but we are looking for the victory.

Meanwhile, Ghana midfielder Mohammed Kudus could not hide his dismay after being named Man of the Match in yesterday’s dramatic 2-2 draw with Mozambique in which he impressed throughout but his individual display was overshadowed by Mozambique’s incredible late fightback to salvage a point.

“I’m very disappointed, we really wanted this victory but it wasn’t to be,” a dejected Kudus told reporters. “It’s a big disappointment for us.”

The West Ham sensation felt Ghana’s failure to hold onto their two-goal lead was down to a lack of concentration: “We lost the game by losing concentration in the last minutes, like against Egypt too.”

Nonetheless, the 22-year-old believes Ghana demonstrated their undeniable quality at the tournament in Côte d’Ivoire: “We showed lots of qualities here but losing focus at the end cost us,” he reflected philosophically.

Kudus’ standout individual performances were one of the bright spots in an otherwise painful AFCON campaign for Ghana but not even being named Man of the Match could lift the spirits of the crestfallen rising star.

Along with coach Chris Hughton, he will now turn attention to processing a crushing setback before Ghana embark on rebuilding for the future.