Mali’s golden generation just one match away from World Cup

On Saturday 22 January 2022 at 18:00 Qatar local time, the draw for the last round of African qualifying for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar took place. Mali is not missing much to experience a huge success.

Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mané, teammates from Liverpool and some of the best footballers on the planet, will compete for a place at the Qatar 2022 World Cup after Egypt drew with Senegal in the last round of African qualification.

A clash between arch rivals Nigeria and Ghana is also expected, while continental colossi Cameroon and Algeria will clash. DR Congo faces Morocco. And Mali, the only team yet to appear at the World Cup, plays Tunisia for promotion.

The first matches will be played on March 24 and the rematches five days later. “It’s beautiful,” said draw assistant Emmanuel Adebayor. “Ten countries, ten big countries from the continent. It’s going to be interesting and they have to know one thing:: they’re going there to represent their continent.

I see Nigeria against Ghana. It will be very difficult. There are a lot of Ghanaians in Nigeria. There are a lot of Nigerians in Ghana. It will be a very, very difficult game. Egypt against Senegal. It’s going to be very difficult.”

“Senegal, of course!” replied draw assistant El Hadji Diouf when asked which teams he expected to go through. “Senegal and Nigeria are very good teams. I think we will do very well.

I think the small details, the concentration, will be very important. Teams will not have much time between matches to train and recover. They will have to show their talent.”

Mali’s golden generation performed very well at the last World and African Junior Championships, with the 2015 U-17 Mali team beating Belgium 3-1 in the semi-finals in Chile and finishing second in the tournament after a 0-2 final with Nigeria.

Two years later at the World Cup in India, the Malian U-17 Eagles were the only African team to reach the semi-finals, where they were beaten by Spain 1: 3 and lost 0: 2 to Brazil in the 3rd place match.

In 2019, they advanced past tournament favourite Nigeria in the Africa U-20 Cup of Nations and Mali also managed to beat second favourite Senegal in the final. At the following FIFA U-20 World Cup in Poland 2019, Mali qualified for the play-offs, with Mali beating Argentina on penalties in the eighth round and only being stopped in the quarter-finals by Italy.

A number of these systematically nurtured golden hopes from Mali have asked for prestigious contracts at European clubs and we can see these excellent players more and more often in the most prestigious World Class Academies and international competitions.

Meanwhile, before we see the March barrage of ten African teams, the play off phase will culminate, with the final being played on February 6 at 8pm and certain confirmation that Africa continues to promise further contributions to the top quality of the sport and their teams and above all a spectacle for football fans.

Participating nations:

Cameroon 7
Nigeria 6
Morocco 5
Tunisia 5
Algeria 4
Côte d’Ivoire 3
Egypt 3
Ghana 3
South Africa 3
Senegal 2
Angola 1
Congo DR 1
Togo 1

Qualifying matches:

Egypt vs. Senegal

Cameroon vs. Algeria

Nigeria vs. Ghana

DR Congo vs. Morocco

Mali vs. Tunisia