AFCON 2019: Guinean supporters resign themselves to their fate as team play final group match on Sunday
Conakry, Guinea (PANA) - Supporters of the Guinean national team, after seeing their team collect only one point from their first two matches in the ongoing 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in Egypt, are resigning themselves to their fate as they play the final group match on Sunday.
Bountouraby Dioubaté, a computer scientist, who has shouted herself hoarse, as she supported the Syli Nationale in their two previous matches, doubts whether the team would emerge from the group stage at all.
Dioubaté, who calls herself "the licensed supporter" of the national team, notes that the state has bled to offer them all the amenities but their performance is far from their goal of reaching at least the semi-finals.
Their hopes were high when they played in their first Group B match against Madagascar but they only managed a 2-2 draw.
Then they lost 0-1 to Nigeria in their second match. Now, they have to redeem themselves when they play Burundi on Monday.
A young Guinean supporter, Ibrahima Sory Soumah, dressed in the national colours of red, yellow, green calculates that to qualify, the Guineans must beat Burundi by at least by 2-0 and wish at the same time that Nigeria beat Madagascar. He believes Guinea can still scrape through.
In a bizarre incident on Saturday morning, the gendarmerie raided popular neighborhood of Coléah, in Matam commune, Conakry, to rescue a lady from angry supporters.
They said the woman, said to be an aunt of Naby Kéïta of English Premiership side Liverpool, had claimed publicly that she was behind all the misfortunes of the team.
Whatever it is, the hopes of the Guinean supporters are not high and they await what fate has in store for them.
-0- PANA AC/IS/KND/MA 29June2019
