In the match that was played in Windhoek, Namibia, the visitors had to win to keep their chance alive for qualification for the 2012 Gabon/Equatorial Guinea finals as they still had to play Burkina Faso at home in Bangui later in the year.
But the Scorpions under the mentorship of Coach Paul Put were kept in check by the Brave Warriors throughout the game and created few chances of making any breakthrough in the encounter.
Halftime score was goalless, but in the second half, the game came to life as both sides pressed for the elusive opening goal. It was the Namibia who finally broke the deadlock, with 10 minutes to go, as South Africa –based striker Tangeni Shipahu pounced to a defensive error by the visitors, racing down the middle before unleashing a shot into the far right corner past keeper Pa Dembo Touray in the Gambian goal.
The result gave Namibia their first three points in their last match of the AFCON 2012 qualifier as Burkina Faso lead group F with nine points while Gambia are tied with Namibia on three points, albeit Gambia having to host Burkina Faso later this year.
Namibian coach Brain Isaacs was happy with the result which according to him restored pride and trust from the nation in the national team.
“Yes of course we are all are happy that we have won today. It was important for us to win this match and we did. People we starting to get irritated with how our national team performs and so it was only fitting that we capped off a rather disappointing AFCON 2012 qualifiers with a victory in front of our passionate home crowd.”
On his part,
“I’m so disappointed with the results and how the team played today. We needed to win this match but we couldn’t do it and now our destiny is not in our hands anymore. Secondly, I believe my players today did not reach their levels of potential and this cost us the game. We should have played better than this”, said Put after the match.
