U20 AFCON: Neighbors Turn Foes As Gambia Pit Senegal In Grand Finale

Neighbors Senegal and Gambia will face off in the TotalEnergies Under-20 Africa Cup of Nations final on Saturday March 11 in Cairo, Egypt – with an ambition to win the competition for a first time.

Since the start of the tourney, Senegal and Gambia have been the two teams that have made the strongest impression. The two West African neighbors have won their 5 matches in this tournament, all without conceding a single goal. On the other hand, the two attacks have been a hit with 12 goals scored by the Junior Teranga Lions and 10, by the Scorpions.

The golden boot race has two potential winners on either end. Senegal’s Pape Demba Diop is on his own with 5 goals, but he is closely followed by Gambia’s Adama Bojang who has scored four goals in the tournament so far, with both players having a spare game.

In the semi-finals, Gambia trembled but held on to dismiss Nigeria (1-0), while the Senegalese took advantage of self inflicted errors to defeat Tunisia 3-0.

Senegal has already played in 3 finals of the last 4 editions, but has systematically failed on the last lap (final). On their part, Gambia had already reached the last four in 2007 and in the previous edition, but the final is a completely different puzzle.

Senegal is hours away for the whole nation to bask in glory, yet again. Winners of the 2021 AFCON, the beach soccer AFCON and most recently the CHAN at the start of the year, one could think that the Gambia will come in with inferiority complex. However, the Gambia fancy their chances.

“The Gambia is a small country, which is now playing in the big leagues. Senegal is an extraordinary team but so are we. They’re grabbing everything right now. We have to stop them on March 11,” aired Gambian coach Aboulie Bojang. The Gambia played the quarter-final of the 2021 AFCON and they look up to the task.