Real de Banjul on Monday defeated the Mauritanian side FC Nouadhibou 2-0 in their second group stage game in the Real de Banjul @ 50 international football competition at the Independence Stadium in Bakau.
Real, who played a goalless stalemate in their opening game with Olympique de Ngor, opened the scoring just 10 minutes after the break courtesy of substitute Pa Omar Jobe. The Gambia U-20 attacker made sure of the three points 10 minutes before the end to book the hosts a place in the knockout stages of the 12-team competition with four points.
Real should have been joined in the last eight by Olympique de Ngor who had secured similar points by defeating the Mauritanian side in their second game. Instead, FC Nouadhibou, despite losing both games, replaced them in the competition after the Senegalese side had returned home to prepare for the new Senegalese league season which kicks off this weekend.
In the other games played on Monday, Casa Sport defeated Guediawaye 1-0 in the Senegalese derby. Alioune Badji scored the only goal of the game.
Elsewhere, ASC Linguere lost 1-0 to Niarry with former Wallidan player Modou Lamin Manneh securing the winner with a 10th minute strike.
Speaking in a post-match interview with Observer Sports, Real de Banjul Coach Franky Van De Velde expressed delight at the win. He also expressed their desire to win the competition.
“Sometimes selecting players in the team gives me headache because I have over 25 fantastic players in which I need to select only eleven,” he added.
Samba Gueye, technical director of Nouadhibou FC, expressed delight to be part of Real de Banjul’s 50-year anniversary tournament. “Our loss today against the host team is not important because we are very happy to be part of the event,” he added.
According to him, they brought their second team to the tournament which he said is made up of young players because their league is ongoing. He noted that this international tournament will help the young players to learn and gain experience.
“The reason for bringing our young players is we cannot afford to miss such a wonderful initiative by Real de Banjul and our first team is playing a championship at home and we played our first game and won 5-0 on Saturday.”
by Arfang MS Camara