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Soccer News of Saturday, 26 January 2008

Source: GNA

Group D teams in Tamale in readiness for Sunday matches

Tamale, Jan. 26, GNA - Teams in Group D at Tamale venue of the 26th edition of the MTN African Cup of Nations would on Sunday try to make amends as they draw victory lines of improvement to enable them to earn qualification into the group of eight in the tournament.

All the four teams - Senegal, Angola, South Africa and Tunisia - all so far have a point apiece, thus with a 50-50 chance as they struggle for wins to qualify into the next stage of the competition. Any of the teams that draws or looses on their second matches on Sunday would have its chances of qualifying on the dice, which makes the competition in the Group more competitive than the rest of the teams at the other venues.

The teams are, therefore, leaving no stone unturned on the Tamale training pitches to ensure that they record convincing victories on Sunday with Senegal and Angola training seriously on Friday evening and on early Saturday morning amidst the harmattan winds in preparation towards their Sunday encounter.

Unlike the Senegalese team that trained in public for the people of Tamale to catch a glimpse of the players as they clapped in admiration of their playing antics by individual players, the Angolans trained in camera at the stadium.

Sports Journalists were however allowed to watch the training for only fifteen minutes while the public were refused entry into the stadium with only the Angolan fans sitting on the stands to watch their country train.

Saturday evening would be the turn of South Africa and Tunisia to train at the stadium since they would be playing the second match on Sunday.

South Africa and Senegal have already won the hearts of the people of the Tamale Metropolis as they continue to receive their unflinching support and would cheer them on Sunday to victory. Though Angola and Tunisia have praised the people of Tamale for their warm reception, their cold attitude towards their hosts deprived them of support from many of the supporters. Many fans that the GNA Sports spoke to on Saturday predicted wins for Senegal and South Africa in Sunday's matches but could not, however, predict the score lines.

Coach Carlos Parreira of South Africa earlier told journalists that the tournament was at a standstill and it could be anybody's chance among the four to qualify into the group of eight. He said his team made a mistake and conceded an early goal but managed to redeem the goal but could not utilise the various chances they created after the equaliser and expressed the hope that they would win the rest of their matches.

Coach Parreira said football was possibly mathematical and that everything would be put in place to ensure that they won their next matches against Tunisia and Senegal to ensure they top Group D. Coach Lius Oliveira Goncalves of Angola also gave similar assurance saying that they would improve in their next game to avoid early exit from the competition.