Gambia head coach, Mattar M’Boge, has urged his team to go all out on Friday and crown their performance at the Total Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations, Mauritania 2021, with a medal around their necks.
The Young Scorpions’ dream of qualifying for a continental final for the first time ended after they lost 1-0 to Ghana in Monday’s semi-final, but M’Boge says they should now put that disappointment into energy for the third place play-off against Tunisia.
“We have spoken to the boys after the game and we had a huge round of applause in the dressing room because of the way we have performed. We fought well but now we have to forget about this match and go all out to win something on Friday,” the tactician said.
The CAF media outlet quoted M’Boge as saying: “We need to go home with pride and at least return to our country with a medal around our necks. That will be pride and success for us and for these young players who have fought really hard throughout the tournament.”
M’Boge says he is immensely proud of the efforts the team has put in throughout the tournament and hopes a medal on Friday can be a worthy gift as they look to equal Gambia’s best performance at the tournament, a third place finish in 2007.
“I am extremely proud of the boys and how we have managed to turn the tables from being underdogs to actually a team that opponents study and prepare for. We are proud of our success and all the positive feedback we have been receiving and this will be a motivation for us as we go back home to do more and take this team to another level,”
“There are so many of these players who have the ability to step into the senior team and hopefully because they have proved themselves,” stated the coach.
Looking back at their performance against Ghana, M’Boge said they were only unlucky and couldn’t convert the chances that came their way.
“We went down with a well taken freekick and maybe on another day we could have converted the chances we had. But we knew we were going to face a tough side and having beaten them in the group stage, they were always going to come back strong at us and they really prepared well for the game,” he noted.
He added: “We take this loss on the chin, go back and prepare for that one final game.”