Mali’s mental approach key to upsetting Senegal

Mali overcame heavy odds and had to dig deep to reach the Africa Cup of Nations quarterfinals and will need the same mental strength against heavily fancied Senegal on Friday.

Mali were down to 10 men after defender Woyo Coulibaly was sent off in the 26th minute of last Saturday’s round-of-16 tie against Tunisia in Casablanca but held out to force a 1-1 draw after extra time and advance on penalties.

“Against Tunisia we needed to show strong mentality as it was 10 against 11,” said Serie A-based midfielder Lassana Coulibaly at the pre-match press conference on Thursday.

“We will need the same mentality against Senegal. We want to progress and we feel we have nothing to lose. We are not the favourites but with our mental, physical strength we feel we can win.”

Senegal are the second-ranked team in Africa and, with 10 goals scored in the tournament, they look strong candidates to advance into next week’s semifinals.

“The eight teams who have qualified for the quarters are all the big footballing countries in Africa but I think we are playing the best,” added Mali coach Tom Saintfiet.

“The only team they’ve lost to over the last years was Brazil, they even beat England. It’s a stable team but also very strong who score easily, who don’t give up much and are very dangerous.

“But we are also a good team. We haven’t lost at this tournament, and we played well against Morocco and Tunisia, two countries who qualified for the World Cup,” the Belgian-born coach said.

Mali are, however, also through to the last eight without winning a game. They drew their three group games and then needed penalties against Tunisia in the first knockout round.

“We haven’t created a lot of goal-scoring opportunities, but we’ve played with discipline and we won’t be changing much around our approach. We’ve got players with good ability and a very good mentality,” Saintfiet said.

Mali are the only country in the last eight without previous Cup of Nations success. They were runners-up in 1972 and have been semifinalists five times since.