BY BOCKARIE ALIEU
232NEWS, FREETOWN
The Leone Stars Technical team headed by John Keister has invited 29 home base and 2 foreign base players over the weekend to commence training on Monday.
The invited players reported at the SLFA Headquarter at King to start training On Monday for the last Group stage of the AFCON Nations Cup qualifying match in Guinea Bissau in September 2023.
Guinea Bissau held Leone Stars to a 2-2 draw on the 13th June 2022 in Guinea Conakry. Sierra Leone falls in Group A with Nigeria, Guinea-Bissau and Sao Tome and Principe.
With one more match each to go Nigeria is leading the group with 12 points in 5 matches played followed by Guinea-Bissau in second with 10 points in 5 matches played. Sierra Leone is in third position with 6 points in 5 matches played and at the bottom is Sao Tome with 1 point in 5 matches played.
In the first group stage match, Sierra Leone lost to Nigeria in Abuja 2-1, drew with Guinea-Bissau 2-2 in Guinea Conakry.
On the 22nd of March 2022, Sierra Leone was held to a goalless draw by Sao Tome. On the 18th June 2023, Sierra lost to Nigeria in a home match 2-3 in Liberia at the SKD Stadium.
Guinea-Bissau will host Sierra Leone on the 6th September 2023 while Nigeria will host Sao Tome on the 10th September 2023 in Abuja.
In the group, two countries will qualify for the Nations Cup in Ivory Coast. In this case, the last matches in group A will be a matter of honoring the fixtures as by their standings in the group, Nigeria and Guinea-Bissau have already qualified for the AFCON Tournament.
Notwithstanding Leone Stars will be looking for a victory against Bissau to upgrade their CAF and FIFA rankings. According to source, the technical team will be inviting few foreign base players added to the home base players for the encounter against Bissau.
Sierra Leone will also use this last match to assess some of the players for the World Cup qualifier matches.
