Senegal coach Aliou Cisse has boldly claimed the time has come for an African nation to win the World Cup after they defeated Qatar on Friday.
The Lions of Teranga bounced back to winning ways with a 3-1 victory against Qatar.
The win revived Senegal’s hopes of reaching the knockout stage of the global competition in the Gulf nation with coach Cisse insisting this could be the year for an African team.
“Yes, an African country can win the World Cup, and I hope that it will be Senegal,” coach Cisse told reporters after the Qatar game as quoted by Lemonde.
Cisse was part of the Senegal side that upset France on the way to a quarter-final appearance in Japan and South Korea 20 years ago.
Senegal defender Pape Abou Cisse believes the Lions of Teranga are on the right track after beating the hosts.
“I hope the other African teams will get going and achieve something in this competition,” Abou Cisse said as quoted by Fifa.com.
“We don’t feel any pressure because of our status compared to the other African teams. The only pressure comes from ourselves because we have big ambitions in this competition.”
The best an African nation has done in the competition is reach the quarter-finals, achieved by Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010).
The Lions of Teranga will face Ecuador in their final group fixture at Khalifa International Stadium on Tuesday. They would probably need to win this game to progress.
