Kemo Cham, AfricaNews reporter in Dakar, Senegal
The Gambia's Under 17 team, Baby Scorpions, suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of their Iranian counterparts, during one of the opening matches of their Group C game, at the ongoing U-17 championship in Nigeria. The match which was played in the city of Calabar saw the continental champions went down 2-0.
The young scorpions, along side Burkina Faso, another losing side in the Group D match on the same day, together with the host team Nigeria, who are also the defending champions, have been identified by many football pundits as the continent’s best hope for the tournament. But so far both Gambia and Burkina Faso have defied hopes of meeting the continent’s expectation.
The Gambian side clashed with the Asian champions, Iran, at the Jerry Esuene Stadium in the coastal town of Calabar, where the former were reduced to nine men as substitute Dembah Janneh and Buba Sama were sent off in the game. The goals came from Payam Sadeghian in the 44th minute and Kaveh Rezaei six minutes towards the end of time.
The Burkinabes were held 1-0 at the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu, eastern Nigeria, with Turkey’s skipper Muhammet Demir sealing the winner just about three minutes into the game.
Meanwhile, the assistant coach of the Gambian side, Lamin Sambou, sought to reassure their fans that all was not lost. He told pressmen, during post-match press briefing, that they looked forward to picking the three points needed to move on to the next level of the tournament, during their next game, which will be against the Netherlands. "We will play to secure the three points that we need to qualify from our group,’’ He said.
According to him, an error had been committed on their part, and they were bound to accept it in good fate.
But Coach Sambou would not rule out the Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) test as a contributing factor to his side’s lose, claiming that they had had to raise a whole new team of players who are making their first appearance at such a major international tournament, as the old guards had all been dropped.
His Iranian counterpart, however, sounded conciliatory, noting that despite been reduced to nine players in the pitch, the Baby Scorpions proved resilient.
Ali Doosti, who described the Gambia as their main opponents, pointed to his team’s two-week camp in Senegal, a country that neighbours Gambia, as having paid-off, as it had offered them the opportunity to adapt to the African weather. The Iranian coach, however, did not lose sight of the fact they aught to ‘‘concentrate on other matches and win them."
While Malawi faces the United Arab Emirates in Group E at the Sani Abacha Stadium in the City of Kano, Today Monday, Algeria will be playing with the Italians in a Group F fixture at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna, both venues located in Northern Nigerian.
The Gambia's Under 17 team, Baby Scorpions, suffered a stunning defeat at the hands of their Iranian counterparts, during one of the opening matches of their Group C game, at the ongoing U-17 championship in Nigeria. The match which was played in the city of Calabar saw the continental champions went down 2-0.
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