Congo turn the heat on Gambia at the Massamba-Debat

Image courtesy of GFFMedia

Gambian joy was instantly curtailed following the weekend victory over South Sudan as the scorpions marked match day two of afcon qualifying with a 1-0 defeat to Congo Brazzaville.

The weekend advantage saw Tom Saintfiet and his men revert to the deep low-laying approach, were content to defend in numbers and spring forward using the pace of Musa Barrow and Assan Ceesay along with the extra ruthlessness of Ablie Jallow in an unchanged starting X1.

But it turned up to be an uncomfortable evening at the artificially turfed Stade Alphonse Massamba-Debat, as the hosts recovered from the Mali drubbing by launching a barrage of onslaught attacks right from the get-go. They utterly dominated the first half in possession and with on-target attempts but could not deliver the telling pass or the clinical finish to beat past Gambian keeper Baboucarr Gaye.

However, 73 minutes into the match, Antoine Makoumbou’s speculative surge with ball saw himself in acres of space, easily beating Saul Marr and letting fly from just outside the 18 yard box , for the only goal of the game.

A handful of other openings before the end could have made the score line more comfortable for the Congolese but the lone goal proved sufficient as they bounced back in contention in group G, level on three points with the Scorpions. Group leaders Mali play bottom side South Sudan on Thursday and could find themselves comfortably ahead with another win, having sat pretty on goal difference already after match day one.

Strong public opinion suggests if the Gambia is to justify a place at another Afcon they will have to do it with better performances than the two displays seen so far in Thies and Brazzaville. Saintfiet, will hope for the availability of more star players in Bubacarr Steve Trawally, Ebrima Colley, Hamza Barry, Ebou Adams among others ahead of next phase of qualifying in September.