By Lamin Drammeh
The Gambia started their Africa nations cup qualifier with a narrow 1-0 defeat to The Squirrels of Benin at Mathew Kerikou National Stadium in Cotonou, Benin on Sunday, June 11.
Benin goal came in the 52nd minute which was all they needed to beat sting less scorpions who could not score from numerous chances they created. The scorer pointed to the sky during his celebration and was joined by team mates in an exciting evening in front of the home fans
Gambia’s best chances felt to the star men Modou Barrow and Babucar Trawally in the first half but the duo’s efforts were not good enough to earn the scorpions a happy moment. There were no serious threats mounted by Coach Sang Ndong’s men in the second half leaving them with little or no option than to chase their shadows for the remainder of a pulsating encounter.
Sang and his charges on papers were the underdogs prior to the Benin encounter going by their poor records in international outings.
However, they did little effort to prove their critics wrong after delivering yet another disappointing result.
The defeat to Benin have placed Gambia in a difficult position going into their return leg in Banjul as well as two crunch ties against Algeria and Togo who were locking horns at the time of filing this report in the other game of group D fixtures of the qualifiers.
And soon after watching the match on live screaming and other social networking sites, Scorpions fans have taken to Facebook to express their dissatisfactions for what they called Gambia’s poor showing in international matches. They have since demanded that coach Sang Ndong be sacked without delay.
