Despite his side’s 2-0 defeat to Mauritania in an international friendly game played at the Independence Stadium in Bakau on Wednesday, head coach of the Gambia National team, Luciano Mancini, is really impressed with the performance of a team dominated by inexperienced players.
He said he would work very hard to improve on their weakness before their World Cup outing game against Ivory Coast next month.
Coach Mancini made these remarks with an interview with reporters shortly after his side 2-0 defeat to Mauritania.
Mancini stated that Dawda Bah and Tijan Jaiteh have played extremely well but are not fit enough, which was why he decided to remove Dawda Bah and brought in Modou Lamin Sawo, who pressed on and created chances but could not score.
Mancini stated further that their defeat to Mauritania came as a result of lack of experience.
According to Mancini, he will invite twelve foreign-based players for their 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifiers away to Ivory Coast in Abidjan on March 23, 2013.
In his comment, Mauritania head coach Patrice Neveu said they chose to play The Gambia because they play same style of football with Senegal.
Neveu revealed that at the start of the game they were observing how the Gambia operate, saying that when they knew that the Scorpions were playing all-out football they decided to seat at the back and hit on counter attacks that happened to pay dividend and they managed to score two goals and won the game.
Neveu further revealed that the team was set up last year and have played series of test games and beat Liberian twice and also beat Egypt and Iran and are preparing to play against Senegal after their second friendly game.
The Scorpions will play their second friendly against Mauritania on March 2 at the Independence Stadium.
