\n Published:
\n Saturday, 03 January 2026
\n <\/p>\n
\u201cThey are the favourites to win the whole competition\u00a0 but we are not scared of nobody.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those were the words of Sudan forward Mohamed Eisa as Sudan wrapped up their final training session on Friday, 2 January, ahead of their TotalEnergies CAF Africa Cup of Nations Morocco 2025 Round of 16 showdown with Senegal.<\/p>\n
Respect for the former African champions is rightfully there, but fear has no place in Sudan\u2019s camp according to the Sudanese forward.<\/p>\n
Senegal arrive in Tangier unbeaten, group winners and widely tipped as title contenders.<\/p>\n
Sudan, by contrast, advanced from Group E with just three points and are contesting their first-ever TotalEnergies CAF AFCON Round of 16 match, Yet Eisa believes that contrast works in Sudan\u2019s favour – \u00a0freeing them from expectation and placing the weight of pressure squarely on their opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll the pressure is going to be on Senegal. They\u2019re expected to go one-nil or two-nil up in the first 10 minutes, but we\u2019re not going to try and let them do that. We\u2019re going to have our own game plan and try and do something.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is an underdog narrative Sudan are embracing rather than resisting. Despite having scored just once in the tournament and conceding six goals \u2014 the highest of any team to reach the knockout stage \u2014 confidence within the squad has not wavered.<\/p>\n
Midfielder Ammar Taifour echoed Eisa\u2019s message, stressing that belief is essential if Sudan are to challenge one of Africa\u2019s most elite and star-studded sides.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe must have ambition. We must be confident in ourselves or else you will not achieve anything. Our country supports us, and for us, this is what we need in order to win against Senegal, Inshallah.\u201d<\/p>\n
History leans heavily in Senegal\u2019s favour. The Lions of Teranga are unbeaten in seven previous meetings with Sudan, recording four wins and three draws, and have never lost to East African opposition at the AFCON finals. Yet two of those encounters ended level at the 2024 CHAN tournament, offering Sudan evidence that belief and strong will can narrow the gap.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur fans always support us, and this makes it easier for us. But we must work hard and concentrate because Senegal is a big opponent. We show them respect, but we also believe in ourselves\u201d concluded Taifour.<\/p>\n
Saturday\u2019s meeting at the Grande Stade de Tangier will be the first between the two sides at the TotalEnergies CAF AFCON.<\/p>\n
Kick-off is scheduled for 17h00 Local Time (16h00 GMT). \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Published: Saturday, 03 January 2026 \u201cThey are the favourites to win the whole competition\u00a0 but we are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218617,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[85,46,105],"class_list":{"0":"post-218616","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}