The Gambia was one of the countries that saw their participation in the African Nations Cup for locally based players ended in heavy defeats on Saturday. Losing 4-0 in Bamako, the Junior Scorpions lost by the same scoreline on aggregate to last edition’s finalists Mali.
The Gambia came very close on scoring on three counts in the first period but their efforts went wayward as Mali regrouped to take the win balls at the hosts’ expense.
The lost for the Gambia evidently shows their exit from the qualifiers and thus no showing at the Kenya edition in 2018. Meanwhile Guinea Bissau were also hammered 7-0 in Guinea Conakry to complete a 10-1 aggregate scoreline win for the hosts following a 3-1 win in Bissau in the first leg. Another team that lost heavily in the first round qualifiers were Swaziland, 7-0 on aggregate to Zambia, while South Sudan were defeated 5-1 by the Ugandan Cranes, and Liberia lost 4-0 to Mauritania. Senegal were 4-2 winners over Sierra Leone and South Africa defeated Botswana 3-0. The first round qualifiers will come to an end today with the second leg qualifiers of the remaining matches.
Meanwhile the team returned to Banjul on Monday July 24th.
