Scorpions Coach Tom Sainfiet has reacted to the Afcon 2021 draw after his Scorpions side have been paired with Djibouti in the preliminary round conducted at the CAF Extra Ordinary General Assembly meeting held on Thursday July 18 in Cairo.
Speaking to the Federation website from his base in Europe, the ‘Saint’ expressed satisfaction with playing Djibouti in the preliminaries. “I am quite satisfied with playing our opponents but I respect them very well too”, he posited. Tom said he has been wishing to avoid Liberia and other big Nations hence their strength but “Djibouti is a quite small football nation and they are doing well and have good players in French lower leagues”
Quizzed about the Scorpions chances in 2021, Tom emphasized that the performance of the Scorpions against big Nations across Africa in the last 12 months is enough testimony that the Gambia is on the right track to make it’s debut appearance at the Afcon. ” We are very optimistic of making it through but we have to respect Djibouti because they have young players on development stages and one cannot rule them out”, Sainfiet noted.
He said preparation is needed hence Djibouti is a far away region and lot of travel will be needed. “But we can count on our good planning, good organisation and the good players we have at our disposal, I think we can come out with win over Djibouti”, Sainfiet said.