Group C: Facts & Figures
- This will be the first encounter between Senegal and Gambia at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. Excluding the CAF African Nations Championship, Senegal and Gambia last faced each other in the 2010 FIFA World Cup qualifiers; both games ended in draws (0-0; 1-1).
- Senegal is making its 17th appearance at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. They will aim to win back-to-back AFCON tournaments for the first time since Egypt’s three in a row from 2006 to 2010, although no AFCON defending champion has progressed further than the round of 16 in the last six editions of the CAF Africa Cup of Nations.
- Senegal has won their opening game in the last four CAF Africa Cup of Nations (v Ghana in 2015, v Tunisia in 2017, v Tanzania in 2019, v Zimbabwe in 2022).
- Since 2017, Senegal has kept more clean sheets than any other team in the Africa Cup of Nations (13 in 18 matches).
- This is Gambia’s second appearance at the CAF Africa Cup of Nations. They reached the quarter-finals in their inaugural participation in the 2021 edition, eventually losing 2-0 to Cameroon.
- As per the last edition, Gambia was the only team to make it through the preliminary round and group stage of the 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers, beating Chad in the preliminaries and finishing second to Mali in the group phase.
- Despite reaching the quarter-finals in AFCON 2021, Gambia never scored more than one goal in their five matches (W3 D1 L1). All three of their victories were by a 1-0 scoreline.
- Sadio Mané has scored or assisted 48% of Senegal’s goals over the last three CAF Africa Cup of Nations (8 goals, three assists). He’s also had 97 touches in the opposition box (5.4 per game) and completed 57 dribbles (3.2 per game) since his debut in the competition in 2015, more than any other player.
- This is Aliou Cissé’s fourth consecutive CAF Africa Cup of Nations as Senegal’s head coach – under his leadership, the Lions of Teranga were quarter-finalists in 2017, beaten finalists in 2019, and champions in 2022. Senegal has also won more games (11) and kept more clean sheets (13) at AFCON than any other team during the same period.
- Musa Barrow was directly involved in all four of Gambia’s goals at the 2021 CAF Africa Cup of Nations, scoring twice and assisting the other two.
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