Adama Barrow, President of The Gambia, has showered words of praise to the country’s national football team following their fairytale run at the Africa Cup of Nations 2021 that came to an end on Saturday after hosts Cameroon condemned them to a 2-0 defeat at the quarterfinal stage.AFCON 2021: Toko Ekambi’s double against Gambia sends Cameroon to the semisRanked number 150 out of 202 nations in the FIFA men’s rankings, the West African nation were making their debut at the continental tourney under the guidance of Belgian head coach Tom Sainfet.Pooled in Group F alongside Mali, Tunisia and Mauritania, the Scorpions defied all odds in getting out of the group stages as they finished joint top with Mali who had a superior goal difference. Afterwards, the team stunned Guinea in the last 16 before their staggering run was ended by five time champions Cameroon, leaving their president to acclaim the team’s wonderful performance.10 PM EAT 1.65 Senegal 3.50 Equatorial Guinea 7.75 “Our Scorpions be proud. It is great making history at AFCON 2021 as debutants. You fought until the very last second & did so fiercely. Gambians are proud of you. We made history! A big thank you to Team Gambia Coach & officials of Gambian Football Federation for the tremendous AFCON2021 experience,” the President posted.Gambia entered AFCON as the lowest-ranked team in the entire tournament, lower than Hong Kong, Suriname or Comoros.In their first ever AFCON, they’ve beaten Mauritania, Tunisia, Guinea, drawn to Mali and lost to Cameroon in the quarterfinals. Fantastic debut campaign for them.— Zach Lowy (@ZachLowy) January 29, 2022 Having bowed out of the tournament, the West African side will once again be called upon to put in the hard yards if they are to follow their debut at AFCON with another appearance at the next edition that will take place in Ivory Coast in 2023.AFCON 2023: Preliminary Round fixtures releasedThe team has been drawn against Chad in the 2023 AFCON Qualifiers Preliminary Round as they are one of the 12 lowest ranked African nations with the matches set to be played in March.Gambia, the 44th team in the history of the AFCON, leave their first tournament appearance with a prayer of thanks – but definitely not with a whimper. A spirited group, resilient and bursting with potential can only mean one thing: they’ll be back. #AFCONwithGary pic.twitter.com/plGCwu9avv— Gary Al-Smith (@garyalsmith) January 29, 2022
