National Women team of Senegal have hit cloud nine after booking a ticket to this year’s Africa Women cup of Nations billed for Morocco. The team last appeared 10 years ago and has been struggling to show face again to no avails. But following 3-2 penalty shoot out victory over Mali at the Stade Modibo Keita in Bamako on Tuesday, the Senegalese will be hoping not only to be in Morocco but attempt to go all the way like their male compatriots who clinched the AFCON trophy for the first time at the recently ended championship in Cameroon.
An elated Senegal coach Moussa Cissé said his girls have put in a lot of hard work and are happy it paid off.
“It is a great pride and a lot of satisfaction to have succeeded to qualify for the finals of the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, it is something that we have been waiting for 10 years.
It must be said that it stems from a long process, we have worked with this group for four years, the Federation has put a lot of resources into enabling the women’s team to succeed. In fact, for this campaign, we started on May 17. We must congratulate the girls who achieved this result in front of a great Malian team.
But our girls fought with selflessness and bravery, having in mind the desire to make history, they wrote a beautiful page for women’s football” enthused the coach.
The Senegalese had gone into the match with lone goal advantage from the first leg at Stade Lat-Dior last Wednesday, the Senegalese were hoping to upset the odds in guaranteeing their WAFCON qualification while the Malians set sights on bouncing back on their home ground.
The all West Africans rematch started off on a bright note for the hosts as they made early attacking threats until Aguissa Diarra fired home from the edge of the box to put the home side in front 13 minutes into the encounter.
Having emerged from the tunnel with 1-0 up, the home side met a totally resurgent visitors, who were gifted a chance to level from the spot but Ndeye Awa Diakhate failed to convert the resulting penalty on the hour mark.
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In the last 15 minutes, the Malians bombarded the visitors through their attack led by Aissata Traore and Bassira Toure but resolute Senegalese held on to force the doubleheader to be decided on penalties, with 1-1 tie on aggregate.
In the shoot-out rounds, the hosts missed thrice from the spot as the visitors converted thrice to confirm their return to the WAFCON after 10 years of absence from the continent’s showpiece.
On the other hand, the shoot-out defeat means the Malian ladies will miss a chance to make an eighth WAFCON appearance and also had their maiden FIFA Women’s World Cup dream dashed.