African juggernauts Senegal set to light up Cosafa Cup
Senegal set to light up Cosafa Cup
JOHANNESBURG, June 28 (ANA) – Though the tournament normally features African nations well South of the equator, West African guest Senegal will carry the favourites tag in the Council of Southern African Football Associations (Cosafa) Cup in Nelson Mandela Bay next month.
The tournament will run from July 6 to 18.
The top-ranked side in Africa, at 22nd in the world, have produced a host of leading international stars and are likely to bring their next generation of footballers to the Cosafa Cup as they seek to become the first guest nation to lift the trophy.
They are not the current Africa Cup of Nations champions though as they lost the 2019 final to Algeria, meaning they are yet to lift the coveted trophy. It is the second time they have finished as runners-up in Africa’s top international competition having also picked up silver in 2002 when current coach Aliou Cisse was a stalwart of the side.
Senegal have made two previous World Cup appearances, in 2002 and 2018. In the first of those they shocked the world by reaching the quarterfinals in Japan and South Korea, but lost in extra-time to Turkey.
They returned to the finals again in Russia in 2018, but this time disappointed when they might have been expected to at least repeat that feat.
Senegal are the current champions of the Wafu Cup, the west African version of the Cosafa Cup, when they beat Ghana on penalties in the last competition played in 2019. They were also losing finalists in 2010 (to Nigeria) and 2013 (to Ghana), so will have been relieved to break their duck in a tournament they hosted. – African News Agency (ANA), Editing by Michael Sherman