The Gambia are writing a remarkable story at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations after reaching the quarter-finals in Cameroon on their debut at the tournament.
On Saturday, they take on the hosts in Cameroon’s home of football Douala and will aim to silence the partisan crowd at the Japoma stadium.
“It is going to be a different experience of course if there’s like 45,000 people in the stadium screaming for that one team who is running up on your goal,” The Gambia goalkeeper Baboucarr Gaye told BBC Sport Africa.
“It is also a kind of motivation if you feel everyone is against you, it also gives you energy. We are trying to take that to do our best and hopefully after our game the stadium will be quiet and we can celebrate.”
The Gambia have only conceded once in the tournament and the 23-year-old will need to put in another good performance in goal when they face Cameroon, whose offensive line is led by their captain and the tournament’s leading scorer, Vincent Aboubakar.
“It’s obviously the same in every game, doesn’t matter who is playing as a striker- you are trying to save the ball regardless, but yes he is a man of absolute quality,” Gaye added.
“They have a lot of decent players in their squad. We’ll try to stop them from scoring a goal, but if we score one, we can probably win a game and that’s our plan.”
