Barely a week ahead of Gambia’s opening engagement in the Afcon 2021 preliminary Qualifiers to Djibouti bill for Wed 9th October, Scorpions skipper Pa Modou Jagne (Nda) is the latest to speak out after the release of the provisional list of the squad.
Nda posited that Scorpions Coach Tom Saintfiet and his charges are in readiness to take on the Riverains De La Mer Rouge(Shoremen of the Red Sea) of Djibouti in both legs slated for 9th and 13th October, 2019. Speaking to the federation website www.gambiaff.org from his club base in Zurich Switzerland, the former Sion and St Gallen defender said, “we all know that winning the two games will keep us representing our country in the Qualifiers and failing to do so means we will not be playing for another two years and that is not what we want”. He said the players and technical team are very serious with what lies ahead. ” We are all very serious with this game because we know how important it is for all of us. We were short in the World Cup qualification and this time, we will not allow that”, the former GPA defender noted.
Nda urged the fans and the nation to keep them in their prayers while the onus would lie on the players to do the job on the pitch. ” I cant wait to join the team on Monday to prepare for the trip to Djibouti for the first leg for a win and finish the job in Banjul”. He said the team will do its best to see the country at the Afcon Qualifiers proper.
Coach Tom Saintfiet has promised that the final list of the Scorpions’ squad would be released at mid week. This will be followed by the team’s eventual traveling to Djibouti via Istanbul for a brief convergence en route to Djibouti City ahead of the match scheduled for Wednesday 9th October, 2019 with a return to the Gambia on Sunday 13th October at the Independence Stadium in Bakau at 17:00hrs