AFCON: Saintfiet says Mali will do everything possible to beat Senegal

Mali national team coach Tom Saintfiet believes Senegal will be favourites when they two sides clash in the quarterfinals of the Africa Cup of Nations on Friday.

The Eagles will face the former African champions at the Grande Stade de Tanger seeking to reach the last four. So far in the tournament, Mali are yet to win a game.

Mali reached the knockout stages after drawing all their group matches. In the Round of 16, they drew 1-1 against Tunisia in extra time but prevailed 3-2 on penalties to reach the quarterfinals.

While Senegal have played all four of their matches at the tournament in Tangier, Mali have played three games in Casablanca, including two group games and their Round of 16 clash, and one group match in Rabat.

Senegal favourites, Mali are outsiders

“Senegal is one of the biggest teams on the continent. They have been at the highest level for years and are very stable, with great individual quality and strong team cohesion,” he told CAF Media.

“In 2025, they have only lost once, against Brazil. They beat England and drew with Ireland, very good results for an African team.

“They are the favorites and we are the outsiders, and we accept that. But we have already shown against Morocco and Tunisia that we are not afraid. We also have good players.

“Our only undoing is not scoring as many goals as we would like, but we are very disciplined when we don’t have the ball. Our plan is ready for Senegal. We have a lot of respect for them and we will do everything possible to stay in this competition until the end.”

On Mali’s journey in the AFCON so far, Saintfiet said: “Each match has been different. We started well against Zambia but missed a penalty. We created many chances in that game and normally should have won more comfortably, but then we conceded a 92nd minute goal.

“Against Morocco, we played very well against one of the best teams in the world. It’s a shame that on a few actions we would have liked VAR to intervene. But that’s football. We drew, but we could have won.

“Against Comoros, there was some fatigue and nervousness. The team felt tired and we didn’t play our best match. Then, in the Round of 16 against Tunisia, despite a red card after 26 minutes, we played very well and deserved to qualify for the quarter-finals.”

He concluded: “It’s true that officially we haven’t won a match yet, but against Zambia and Morocco we could have won. The most important thing is that today we are in the quarter-finals alongside all the biggest teams on the continent. We can only be proud of ourselves.”

This will be the second meeting between Mali and Senegal at the AFCON finals.