Holders Senegal have secured one of the semi-final tickets at the ongoing WAFU ‘A’ Women’s Championship in Sal, Cape Verde.
The Teranga Lionesses progressed into the semi-final following a 4-1 thumping of the Gambia at Estadio Marcelo Leitao. Mame Moussa Cisse-tutored side took the lead thanks to red-hot Hapsatou Diallo as early as two minutes of action.
The Scorpions, however, fought hard to return into the mix and were handed a penalty which Cathrine Jatta made no mistake to convert from the spot to restore parity on the brink of half time.
After returning from break, the Senegalese came all out with all guns blazing as Diallo recovered the lead with her second of the match four minutes into the second half of the encounter.
The 17-year-old forward notched her third of the match to extend the advantage for the Cup holders in the 71st minute before she completed the rout with her fourth seven minutes from time.
With four goals to her name, Hapsatou Diallo was awarded the Woman-of-the-Match accolade in Senegal’s last four spot.
Earlier, Guinea revived their hopes of reaching the semi-final after beating Sierra Leone 1-0 in their second Group B fixture.
Both teams were destined to share the spoils in the early kick-off match until Fatoumata Diallo gave the Guineans bragging rights with her wonderful effort four minutes from the time.
While the Guineans still have a chance of progressing in their final group game against Gambia, it was the end of the road for Sierra Leone, having lost two consecutive matches.
Fatoumata Diallo won the Woman of the Match award after her solitary effort stole the show for Guinea against the Leone Stars.
REACTIONS
Mariama Sowe, the Gambia head coach: “Looking at the match, looking at the Senegalese team, they are more experienced than the Gambian team and looking at their psych, they are bigger than the Gambian in terms of size. Both teams are far apart because the Gambia are not as exposed as the Senegalese.”
Ernest Hallowell, Sierra Leone’s head coach: “The match is very competitive, it’s very good, that’s what I can say. They did extremely well, to be honest. It was just quite unfortunate that right from the start of the match we have a very major injury with our goalkeeper and towards the end of the match, we also lost one of our midfielders and that affected our game and the pressing in the midfield.”
Sekou Tidiane Kaba, Guinea’s head coach: “I am very happy. Big thank you to all people of Guinee and also to Cape Verde who hosted us during this event. Also a cheering word for support to Sierra Leone, they did well but we were the winners of this match. We lost our last match, we had some flaws but together we could overcome all the errors. It’s still not time to celebrate. We still have another match to play, so it’s time to focus and work.”
Mame Moussa Cisse, Senegal’s head coach:” We knew that with victory we are already qualified. That was our main goal. In the first half, we scored one goal and then we had some fault that allowed Gambia to score one goal. But my players came back after the break to overcome the opponents. My players showed they have qualities. I am proud of them. We still have one game to play and our goal is to win every match
