The Gambia’s Queen Scorpions eliminated their West African opponents Sierra Leone on a 3-1 aggregate after their latest 1-1 draw in Banjul on Monday following their 2-0 away win last week in Liberia.
“I am very happy to collect a point at home after our away victory last week in Liberia. This helped us qualify into next round of the qualifiers,” said Mariama Boom Sowe during her post-match interview with journalists.
After thrilling Sierra Leone in the first period, Mariama Sowe noted that her side played better during the first period compared to the second half. This she added made Sierra Leone level the scores in the second period.
“We expected more in the second half than the first but things went the other way round.”
According to her, they will do a lot of work on improving the team especially on their defence-line before the Cameroon clash, while expressing readiness to start their preparation against the Africa’s second Women’s best side, Cameroon.
Commenting on debutant Fatoumatta Kanteh, who scored the only goal for the Gambian side during the second leg, Coach Sowe added that the Gambian Spain based player put up a good performance which helped the team earned qualification into the next round.
“Fatoumatta has also linked us with other Gambian-abroad based players whom we can call to equally participate in the country’s AWCON tournament proper.”
Sierra Leone assistant coach, Hassan M. Mansaray also expressed delight with his side’s performance during the return leg, noting that their return leg game was more colourful compared to the first encounter.
“The return leg was a very colourful one though The Gambia took the day in the end. Looking at our performance, we were on top of the situation. It is because we have considered the two merging goals we conceded at our home that made us eliminated out of the competition. But the ladies put up their best performance.”
He, however, noted even though they are out of the competition they will continue motivating their players for future tournaments.
