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Senegal and Tunisia continue their search for the World Cup

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The Lionesses of Teranga and the Eagles of Carthage both started this tournament in thunderous fashion.

Tunisia convincingly beat Togo 4-1, while Senegal comfortably beat Uganda 2-0 as they made the best possible starts to the competition.

Unfortunately, that early promise did not relate to an automatic FIFA Women’s World Cup qualification as they were halted in the quarter finals by Tunisia and Zambia respectively.

Now, they have to regroup though as they face each other to keep their play off hopes alive for a World Cup appearance.

“We have to build on our past experience, so we don’t repeat the mistakes we made in our last game against Zambia. We showed excellent things in our first meetings at this tournament, we will have to come back to it,” said Senegal coach Mame Moussa Cissé ahead of the game.

Samir Landolsi, the coach of Tunisia, highlighted the mental fatigue of his team.

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“We had to boost the girls after the defeat against South Africa. Travel also between Casablanca, Rabat and Casablanca again, moving all our logistics, has been challenging. Physically, the girls are still in top shape, but they are a little affected psychologically,” said Landolsi.

In their quarter-finals against Zambia and South Africa, Senegal and Tunisia produced a good level of play, but were ultimately just not good enough on the day to advance.

“Only the final score will count tomorrow, more than our performance in the game. Against Zambia, we led, played well but we ended up being eliminated. I don’t want the same scenario,” says Cissé.

Landolsi says the intercontinental play-off match will be difficult, as will the path of teams to Australia and New Zealand for the World Cup in 2023.

“I would have liked Africa to have six representatives but hey, that’s the way it is. It’s an extra experience,” said the Tunisia coach.

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The match takes place on Sunday 17 July at 18h00 at Casablanca’s Mohammed V Stadium.

Kunle Solaja is the author of landmark books on sports and journalism as well as being a multiple award-winning journalist and editor of long standing. He is easily Nigeria’s foremost soccer diarist and Africa's most capped FIFA World Cup journalist, having attended all FIFA World Cup finals from Italia ’90 to Qatar 2022. He was honoured at the Qatar 2022 World Cup by FIFA and AIPS.

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