The Teranga Lionesses of Senegal kicked off their last group game without three of their key players. Coumba Sylla Mbodji, Anta Dembele and Nguenar Ndiaye were declared positive to Covid-19 ahead of the clash against hosts Morocco in the 2022 TotalEnergies Women’s Africa Cup of Nations, WAFCON on Friday at the Prince Moulay Abdallah Stadium in Rabat.

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This forced head coach Serigne Cisse to make changes to his starting lineup. As Dembele and Ndiaye were starters in their previous game against Uganda.

“We prefer to keep the performance from this game and not the result. I would like to congratulate my team for the performance today considering that we suffered some positive cases in our camp. We shall take lessons from this loss.” Explained Cisse.

“Today was a chance for us to see the skills of those playing for the very first time. And I can say that we did our best. The team played their best ethically and tactically. We also must remember that we were playing against the host team in front of their fans. It is a big stage.”

Cisse made 10 changes to the team that faced Uganda on Wednesday.

“Our goal is to qualify for the World Cup. We will play at our best. Our girls today were substitutes coming off the bench so to see them playing like this is a great achievement. This was my goal. The players did their best.”

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Senegal now finish second of Group A going into the quarterfinals. The West Africans will face the winners of Group B in the last eight, which could be any of Zambia, Tunisia and Cameroon.

Group B concludes on Saturday, with Cameroon playing Tunisia in Casablanca and Zambia taking on Togo in Rabat (both games 20:00 GMT).