Senegal's 4-2 friendly win over Brazil sent out a strong signal to all their rivals just a few months before the start of the 2023 CAF Africa Cup of Nations. At the end of the match, Sadio Mané gave a speech to rally his team-mates around the same objective and also to prevent them from slackening off after their triumph in 2022. Captured by Seneweb TV, the African Golden Ball winner reminded the players that the Lions will be in Côte d'Ivoire to win the continental title again.
I think we're all happy," begins Sadio Mané. We've been together for a fortnight, right? It's been good preparation and we've worked as a team. But we don't have time, we've got an African Cup of Nations to prepare for together. Now we've reached a certain level where we'll be eagerly awaited, and that's normal. But I think all the Senegalese want us to win the CAN again. On our side (players) and on your side (staff and former internationals), we have to stick together to win this African Cup of Nations," says the Bayern Munich striker.
He went on to talk about Algeria's disappointment at being eliminated in the group stages in Cameroon. "We saw the example of Algeria winning the African Cup of Nations and then being knocked out... We don't want that not to be a disappointment. With the team we have, with this generation, there's a chance of winning another Africa Cup of Nations. We players still want to. We, the managers, still have two or three years to accompany the youngsters. We have no time to lose. Our objective is to win the CAN. And we have to do everything we can. We're going to try to prepare well together. We can't have any more of the worries we had five or six years ago," warns Sadio Mané.
