Interview

Football: "I'm in a trance", Aliou Cissé returns to the coronation of Senegal at CAN 2022

Senegal coach Aliou Cissé, February 6, 2022, during the coronation of the Lions at CAN.

AFP - CHARLY TRIBALLEAU

Text by: Ndiasse Sambe Follow

9 mins

A year ago, to the day, Senegal won their first African Cup of Nations (CAN) in Cameroon against Egypt (0-0; 4-3).

Aliou Cissé, the hero coach of the Lions, looks back on how he prepared and lived the coronation of his men between the final lost in 2019 against Algeria to that victorious in front of the Pharaohs.

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Aliou, let's go back to July 19, 2019. Senegal has just lost the second CAN final in its history against Algeria (0-1).

What was your first thought when the referee signaled the end of the game?

I said to myself, “Here you go!

Another missed date.

Another missed meeting and another lost final.

A day of defeat.

It's very complicated, it's very difficult because we wanted so much to win this cup, to bring it home for our supporters, for the Senegalese people.

It couldn't happen.

I am very bitter, very unhappy, necessarily at the time.

We say to ourselves deep down, we have missed the boat again. 

Did you, like most Senegalese, say to yourself "

It's a curse

 "

?

Each time, Senegal arrives with a good squad, good players, but there is never a cup at the end.

As already in 2022 and the lost final...

(Adamant) No!

No way.

I believe in god.

What must first be remembered is that in 2019, Algeria had a very good team.

On this African Cup, she was the best team.

She had played really damn well.

Now, a final is played on details.

I could imagine everything in the preparation for this final, except that we could concede a goal so quickly, and so early in the match (2nd minute) and especially in such bizarre conditions.

Afterwards, we also had opportunities to be able to return to this match, but at some point, we confused speed with haste.

Afterwards, we can't speak of a curse, it's a failed final.

It was just Senegal's second final, we can't speak of a curse if we haven't played and lost a lot more than two finals. 

What was your speech after this final towards the players?

Simply that I was proud of them.

I had absolutely nothing against them.

They gave what they could.

Their attitude, their professionalism was magnificent. It's a lost final, but what we showed in this CAN presaged a better future.

This defeat, we had to take it as an experience that was going to serve us.

This defeat, as bitter as it may be, has allowed us to prepare for 2022. 

Did you immediately project yourself on the next AFCON, in 2022?

It took me a while though.

To rest, find my family, because the AFCON, obviously, takes a lot of your energy.

But after two or three weeks, you want to leave.

The evening of this defeat, I had already tried to remobilize the players by encouraging them, even if it was difficult to console them, because they all dreamed of bringing this cup to the country.

But the main thing is that we were able to get up and that's the strength of this team.

To use this great disappointment to achieve what they have achieved is huge. 

You said earlier that you had imagined everything in 2019, except this scenario of the goal conceded after two minutes.

In 2022, did you imagine the scenario of the final that you won on penalties against Egypt?

Yes, we had imagined this scenario because in my football career, I had the chance to play three or four finals, whether in a club with Paris Saint-Germain or with the selection.

I know that on final days, anything can happen.

You have to be prepared to play 90 minutes or more and go to penalties.

The only important thing in a final is winning it.

We knew that this final could be settled from the start of the match as in extra time or penalties.

My only concern was that my team got into this match well, because after that, it could determine the final scenario.

A final is a lot of stress, a lot of pressure.

We were 90 minutes away from bringing home a cup.

The match itself was not difficult, but the stakes increased the game. All week,

I kept telling the players: “It is important to start this final well”.

And we started well with this penalty obtained in the 5th minute.

We miss it, but behind, the attitudes are good, the boys continue to attack, we are balanced defensively.

In reality, we played the match we had to play. 

What crossed your mind when Sadio Mané missed the penalty after 5 minutes of play?

We don't have time to gamberger, the Egyptians were already attacking, so the players had to stay in the game.

Even if we had scored, the match was going to be difficult.

Nobody lets go of a final like that, especially the Egyptians who know it well.

Missing this penalty pushed us to be attentive until the end of the match and go to the end of ourselves.

The victories are more beautiful when you seek them deep within yourselves.

It was difficult, it was complicated, but we won it and that's what's important.

This is what has changed a little bit in our mentality.

The Senegalese players now, until the 95th minute, don't give up.

“Dem ba diekh” (“going all the way”, in Wolof). 

Most Senegalese feared the final would go to penalties, because Egypt had eliminated Ivory Coast (eighth) and hosts Cameroon (semi-final) on penalties.

And in addition, there was a particularly feared goalkeeper in this exercise, Gabarski.

How do we drive all of that out of the players' minds and get the coin to fall on the right side?

Quite simply because I did not attach importance to these facts, these statistics.

You can't analyze football with these facts, even if you have to take them into account.

What was important is that we, too, prepared for this scenario.

We knew we could go to penalties and everyone knew what to do.

Since the start of this CAN, we have been preparing to take penalties.

No matter what Egypt did before, we were ready.

At each session, we took at least ten players to take the penalties.

We knew that sooner or later, we were going to go through this and when it happened, the boys had the necessary mind to go through.

When Bouna (Sarr) misses the first shot, too, we see that the attitude, the behavior, the posture remains the same.

These are small details that give certainty to our team, and transmit doubt to opponents.

Even when Édouard Mendy stops the fourth Egyptian shot, nothing is done.

That's football, there have been so many turnarounds that you have to stay focused until the end. 

Between the moment when Mendy saves the penalty and when Sadio Mané is in front of the ball for the fifth Senegalese shot, which can be decisive, what crossed your mind?

When Sadio Mané advances, I have my arm resting on my deputy, who tells me “ 

If Sadio scores, we are African champions 

”.

As if I didn't know (laughs).

I trust, I tell myself that God is good.

It cannot be otherwise.

(He repeats) It can't be otherwise.

Today is our night, God can't do that.

I'm positive and I tell myself that Sadio will score it.

We have never been so close to winning the CAN.

In my head, Sadio, he can only put it.

There is no other option, it is not possible that God is... (he does not finish his sentence). 

And Sadio scores it...

My head is exploding.

I am in a daze.

We say to ourselves, here we are, we are African champions, we finally have our star too.

We don't realise.

Until now, we do not fully realize.

I know that we are African champions, but I think that it is in 10, 15 years that we will realize it outright.

Even today, we are in the “game”.

The matches continue;

the World Cup, the next CAN.

There are so many deadlines that we don't really have time to savor.

But it's done, we won the first African Cup for Senegal.

And my thoughts today go to all these presidents of federations, all these coaches who fought to win this CAN and who did not have the chance to win it and who are no longer there: Bruno Metsu, Jules Bocandé, Karim Séga Diouf with whom it all started.  

One last question, when did you “get it into your head” to win an African Cup with Senegal?

When you were a kid in the streets of Ziguinchor?

When you arrived as a teenager in France?

During your first selection?

I always dreamed of being a professional footballer and playing in the World Cup.

I wanted to be world champion and in our neighborhoods, when we played, we were France, Brazil, Germany, but not Senegal (Laughs).

The African Cup, I dreamed of it from 1986 and the CAN in Egypt.

I was young (10 years old), I watched Jules François Bocandé, Thierno Youm, Oumar Guèye Sène, Boubacar Sarr Locotte.

They impressed us.

When Bocandé came to Ziguinchor, there was a riot;

Johnny Hallyday who took to the streets of Paris... The streets were blocked because Bocandé was coming.

When we saw that, we wanted to be in his place, to feel all this enthusiasm, to go play for Senegal and win the CAN one day.

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