AFCON: Mali impress coach Saintfiet despite Senegal defeat

Mali national team coach Tom Saintfiet praised his players for their quality football despite going down to Senegal in the quarterfinal fixture of the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco on Friday.

The Lions of Teranga needed a first goal courtesy of Iliman Ndiaye, who capitalised on a defensive error by goalkeeper Djigui Diarra, to beat the Eagles 1-0 and qualify for the last four at Grand Stade de Tanger.

Ndiaye capitalised on a goalkeeping error from Diarra inside the penalty area to find the basck of the net before Mali suffered a huge blow when captain Yves Bissouma was sent off following a second bookable offence.

Mali showed world what ‘we are made of’

“It was an interesting and difficult match for us because we had to play large parts of the game with ten men. But that doesn’t take away the fact that my players played gallantly and played very well,” said Saintfiet after the game.

“I am proud of them for the performance they put up not just in today’s match but throughout the competition. We have shown the world what we are made of. Together with my staff we will analyse our matches and see what we can do better in future.”

Senegal coach Pape Thiaw, said: “It was not an easy match because we played against a very talented Mali team but we achieved our objective. The Mali team has good qualities and they created many challenges for us.

“If we had been more clinical in front of goal we could have scored more goals but what is more important today is for us to have qualified for the semi-final.”

He added: “We will look into our errors and look to correct them for our future matches. We hope that we will be more efficient in front of goal and have more luck in future.”

Mali will now head home following the defeat while the former African champions will wait for the winner between Egypt or Ivory Coast in the last four.