South Africa U-17 head coach Duncan Crowie has refused to blame any of his players after they lost 5-0 to Senegal in the quarter-finals of the 2023 U-17 Africa Cup of Nations on Wednesday.
The Amajimbos were powerless to stop the Teranga Cubs as Amara Diouf (brace), Waylon Renecke (own goal), Benjamin Wallis and Mamadou Sadio all registered their names on the scoresheet.
South Africa made it to the quarter-finals as one of the best third-placed teams after finishing behind Morocco and Nigeria in Group B, and Crowie admitted his team was simply no match for the pacy Senegalese team.
“The spirit of the South African team is that we don’t lose, we always learn from our defeats. This is a tough lesson and we will take it in. We faced a very good team with dangerous individual players. We tried to stop them but could not succeed,” Crowie said after the match.
“The result is a disappointment for us. No one wants to lose 5-0. Senegal had very good physically able players with good speed. We couldn’t match in several instances.
“I don’t blame anyone for the defeat, even the players who scored own goals. It is part of the game and we can only pick the lessons. I am proud of the players and everything they have given in this tournament.”
FULL-TIME! ⏰
A 5-star performance from Senegal as they comfortably beat South Africa ????????#TotalEnergiesAFCONU17 pic.twitter.com/0pbrTzQjIw
— #TotalEnergiesAFCONU17 2023 ???? (@CAF_Online) May 10, 2023
Senegal’s semi-final progress continues their hopes of winning the tournament in just their third outing. It would also match the success of the Senegal teams that lifted the African Nations Championship and U-20 AFCON earlier this year.
