Senegal and Equatorial Guinea will compete at the Ahmadou Ahidjou in Yaoundé for a place in the quarterfinals of the TotalEnergies Africa Cup of Nations, Cameroon 2021.
While Senegal were expected to be there as one of the pre-tournament favorites, Equatorial Guinea defied many odds to reach the quarters as one of this AFCON Black Horses.
Aliou Cissé’s side, who have not yet shown their true colors since the start of the competition, remain timid with two wins, two draws and three goals scored without any conceded so far.
Teranga Lions remain favorites for the February 6 final. They will be looking to the heroics of goalkeeper Edouard Mendy, defender Kalidou Koulibaly and superstar Sadio Mané to go past the Equatorial Guinea hurdle and cut one more step towards the gold they are chasing for the first time.
Aliou Cissé knows the importance of maintaining the momentum going into the match.
“We are going to approach this match as we have done before, with humility and confidence. We will play against a good team from Equatorial Guinea that we know well,” said Cissé.
“We have great respect for this team which has good players. We have been gaining momentum since the start of the competition and we will play our best football to get to the semi-finals. Sadio Mané is doing better. We hope to get him back for tomorrow’s game.”
Equatorial Guinea coach Juan Micha says his team is ready for the challenge ahead
“Our team is ready, both physically and mentally. We respect Senegal, runners up of the previous edition. It will be a final for us, and we will play our game to put on a good match and go as far as possible. It’s true that we won against Senegal in 2012 AFCON but we are not the favorites this time.”
Against many odds, Micha’s side has been ideal during this AFCON edition. After a narrow defeat to Côte d’Ivoire Nzalang Nacional stunned holders Algeria and Sierra Leone to reach the Round of 16, where they surprised Mali to go through.
Equatorial Guinea, participating for the third time their history, hope to do as in 2015 or better, when the Nzalang Nacional reached the semifinals. A difficult but not impossible mission for a team that has always demonstrated its qualities to always go further.
