Édouard Mendy, Senegal goalkeeper:
"It was a close call but it turned out in their favor. Today, we are very disappointed. We were keen to go further in this competition. With the group stage that we did, we were gaining strength. Today, we came up against a very good team from Ivory Coast. They were revengeful compared to their group stage and wanted to show another face in front of their team. public, and I think they succeeded. They gave us a lot of problems. They were good in using the ball, so it was difficult for us to evolve and have control over the match for 120 minutes. It could have gone one way or another, today, it went to Côte d'Ivoire. We must congratulate them.
Also read “We wanted to find the Elephants”: Emerse Faé satisfied with the Ivory Coast match
Sadio Mané, star striker from Senegal:
"We lost. Football is cruel. Such is life and the best won."
Kalidou Koulibaly, defender and captain of Senegal:
"It's difficult because I think we could have done better. We could have won this match on the pitch. We didn't do it. Afterwards, on penalties, it "is always difficult. We know that it's a technical gesture that we have to put into practice. We applied ourselves, we tried to do the best we could. We lost on penalties tonight, but in terms of performance, we did something good and it's a shame.
We can go out with our heads held high. We showed good things, we showed a beautiful face of Senegal. Everyone saw us coming out in the group stage. It's a shame that we're going out today, but that's football, that's how it is.
We want to thank the supporters for their support throughout the competition. They always believed in us. They have always been behind us. Now we are disappointed for them. We are also disappointed for us, because we really wanted to go far in this competition. But fate wanted it otherwise.”
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Aliou Cissé, Senegal coach:
"There was no excess of confidence. It was a match that we controlled rather well in the first half. We scored this first goal. Unfortunately, afterwards we lost a little bit of the main thread of the match. We moved back, which allowed the Ivorians to control possession, although at the start we had it. It was this possession which allowed us to find gaps. After our goal , they moved their midfield line and their attacking line forward to come after us much higher. We should have used the intervals a little more. That wasn't the case. We didn't do it much . In reality, it was us who put ourselves in danger in that match."
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