Guinea and Liverpool FC midfielder Naby Keita did not have much to say ahead of Guinea’s encounter with Guinea-Bissau in his pre-match comments, but the Nationale Syli captain remarked that reaching the World Cup is a dream for he and his teammates and that there are no easy matches when it comes to international competition in African football. One factor Keita pointed out is the synthetic pitch that the teams will be playing on in Mauritania, which will equalize the teams despite Guinea-Bissau being unable to host the FIFA World Cup qualifying match.
AS Roma midfielder Amadou Diawara’s comments were similar to Keita, in that Guinea are focused completely on accomplishing the dream of a debut appearance for the West African nation. Guinea are in Group I with Morocco, Sudan and Wednesday’s opponents, and will follow up their “road” match with an important home qualifier against group favorites Morocco.