Mali coach Tom Saintfiet has said that even though it is the dream of every team to win the AFCON, their main objective for the ongoing competition in Morocco is to get to the semi finals though it is not going to be easy.
Speaking to cafonline as they prepared to battle fellow West African side, Senegal in the quarter-finals today, Saintfiet said that even though Mali reached the quarter-finals in the last five editions of the AFCON, they want to go past that stage this time around.
“Before the AFCON, we spoke about reaching the semi-finals, and that remains our objective. As a coach and as a player, you always want to win a title. We know it’s not easy. Even reaching an AFCON quarter-final is not simple. In the last five editions, Mali reached the quarter-finals in 2023. Today, we are back in the quarter-finals, which is not bad. But we want more.
I have experience with The Gambia in Cameroon, where we lost very close to the semi-finals — that hurt. This time, we will do everything to reach the last four. Friday’s match is our final. We will do everything to qualify. Our slogan with the players is: “our dream, our history, and our moment.” This is our moment. There will not be another opportunity.
Our dream of becoming champions, our history that we are writing together, and our moment — this AFCON here. We will give everything for that. Hopefully, after Friday’s match, we will stay in Morocco because we love playing this AFCON here and we want to reach the semi-finals.”
