Senegal coach Serigne Cissé has said ‘they didn’t expect an easy match against Zambia.’
In a post match interview following Wednesday’s 3-2 loss to the Copper Queens, Cisse was gracious.
“We didn’t expect an easy match against Zambia, and we also don’t expect an easy match against Morocco on Saturday,” Cisse said.
Senegal will face Morocco on Saturday in what promises to be a mouthwatering tie.
Zambia and DR Congo will go head to head in other match.
“I think the girls showed very good things, we are going to study the match, especially in the second half,” he added
Cisse also believes individuals errors costed his side maximum points.
“We found ourselves in the competition after a bad game. We asked the players to try to attack and not wait for them.
“That’s what we did in the first minutes. We scored the first goal, then they equalised on an individual error, it happens in football,” he reflected
“In the second half, as soon as we came back, they scored again on an individual error. We saw a very, very good team
“I want to congratulate them for the efforts they made. They fought, they gave everything. I think that overall, we deserved at least one point. But that’s football,”
“So I congratulate the girls. I congratulate the Zambian team for their victory.”
“We found ourselves in the competition after a bad game. We asked the players to try to attack and not wait for them. That’s what we did in the first minutes.
“They gave a lot of feedback to this team. After the match, the girls themselves said to themselves, we have to put this game aside, we have to continue to believe in it. We are going to fight hard.
“It will be a very, very difficult match. I had planned two wins in the first two games. It is true that we lost the first one. It will be up to us to raise our level.
“To play as we did in this second period. To raise our level again.
“To try to have something on Morocco. So it will be up to us to fight, to play on our values. And I think there are opportunities to do something good, God willing.
“Our midfielder Sadigatou Diallo is back in the competition. We know that she is a very, very good player, who can bring us a lot of things. But she has just come back from an injury.
“She didn’t have the rhythm she needed. So she didn’t play the first match and yet we won. So it’s always like that.
“She came, she brought what we expected from her. And we will continue to work with her. We have a group of 24 players.
“We will see, depending on the opponents, what we will have to put in to try to win the matches. So I think that beyond Sadigatou, it’s all the girls who played a good match. And I congratulate them for the content and the efforts that have been made despite the defeat.
“In relation to the penalty incident, I can’t say because I haven’t seen the images. But if the referee thinks that there is no penalty, it is she who decides. Anyway, we did what we had to do. We pushed them.
“We had opportunities. We could have, with a little more luck, scored the third goal and maybe even a fourth goal. That’s what I thought would have happened.
“But I won’t speak about the referee. I will leave it to the referee to be aware of the decision she made.” – Senegal coach Serigne Cisse
