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After a sluggish start, Senegal gained momentum in the knockout matches. Enough to give him back a favorite label that the Teranga Lions are reluctant to accept before their semi-final against Burkina Faso on Wednesday.
There is no point in running, you have to start on time. This moral of La Fontaine is also the philosophy of Senegal in CAN-2022. After a slow start, the Teranga Lions rediscovered their predatory instincts and found the costume of favorite cut for the African Cup of Nations, before their semi-final against Burkina Faso, Wednesday February 2 at the Ahmadou stadium. Ahidjo from Yaoundé (8 p.m.).
Finalist of the last edition, globalist in 2018, armed as ever with a star per line, Sadio Mané, Idrissa Gueye, Kalidou Koulibaly and Édouard Mendy, Senegal landed in Cameroon in the clothes of an ambitious suitor. The squad was simply rated as the most expensive in the competition.
“A long-distance race”
But a first round with only one goal scored, a last-second penalty – from Mané – against Zimbabwe, and indigestible performances raise questions: are Senegal, like the other 2019 finalists Algeria, doomed to miss his tournament?
“The big teams will always be criticized, it’s normal, the expectation is enormous,” ex-Senegalese star El-Hadji Diouf told AFP. “But I repeat: the CAN is not a race of speed but a race of distance.”
The Lions raised the level a little in the round of 16 against Cape Verde (2-0), finishing eleven against nine, then offered one of the best matches of the tournament against the attractive Equatorial Guinea (3-1).
Senegal “is a team that is growing in strength, we have enormous potential if we play our game”, insists Diouf, unfortunate finalist in 2002 against Cameroon (0-0, 3 pens to 2), a possible final in 2022, the “Indomitable Lions” facing Egypt in the other half on Thursday.
“Between the Covid-19 and the administrative problems of Pape Gueye, Aliou Cissé had to tinker. He was never able to align his typical team”, explains Xavier Barret, columnist for France 24 and RFI. “It’s the first time [contre la Guinée équatoriale] that he was able to renew his standard team. Senegal is therefore finally finding its cruising speed and that’s good, we are arriving in the decisive matches.”
“We do not ignite”
However, coach Aliou Cissé wants to cool any excess of confidence. “We do not ignite, we know that everything has not been perfect” against the “Nzalang” (Lightning) Guinean.
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“We kept the faith, we always believed in ourselves and worked despite the criticism, today everyone agrees: Senegal is gaining momentum, but the balance is fragile”, underlines the coach.
A word relayed by his captain Kalidou Koulibaly at the end of the quarter-final against Equatorial Guinea: “We know that we can do better”, explained the Neapolitan defender at the microphone of France 24. “We know that we are in We are gaining momentum. We know that we can hold the ball even better but we must not be choosy, we have qualified for the semi-finals. After the group matches, no one saw us there.”
“There is no favorite here, we haven’t done anything yet, we’re in the semi-finals, we’re happy today, we’re enjoying today, tomorrow we’re off again, we have one day less ‘recovery’ than them”, warns the central defender of Paris SG, Abdou Diallo, in a sequence shot in the locker room after the quarter-final and widely broadcast on social networks.
The Teranga Lions have at least one advantage: Aliou has been in place since March 2015. “For six years, we have traveled all over the continent, played all kinds of football, some of us are playing their fourth CAN, I I also played it on the field: it’s the experience”, assures Aliou Cissé. “In difficult times, we remained calm, we moved forward together,” he continues.
“If there has been international progress over the past six years, Senegal is one of them. We were fourteenth in Africa and 64th in the FIFA rankings when I arrived, today we are first on the continent and in the Top 20 world”, highlighted the technician in a press conference on the eve of the match on Tuesday. “It’s not a coincidence, it’s a long-term job.”
Captain of Senegal beaten in the CAN-2002 final, coach of the team beaten in the CAN-2019 final, Aliou Cissé “does not think of failure”, but “rather of doing everything to pass this milestone” and finally win the continental trophy for Senegal.
Senegal has been chasing a trophy “since 1960, with very fine generations who have passed without achieving it”, continued Cissé. In Cameroon, “we hope this star, of course, we are working,” the coach concluded. “We have the opportunity to be part of this generation that can win. But it’s a motivation, a marathon, to believe that at the end, the light will be there.”
