As the Leone Stars of Sierra Leone get set to battle their Togolese counterparts in an international friendly at the Mardan Sports Complex in Aksu, Antayla in Turkey at 16:00 hours GMT, John Keister’s men will be aiming to get their second ever victory or at least their second draw against “the Sparrowhawks”.
Thursday’s meeting of the two nations will be the first time they will be going head-to-head in an international friendly and Sierra Leone’s trainer who has lined-up 23 players that consists of eight home-based and fifteen foreign-based players with 10 of the 23 players in camping eyeing their debut appearances for Leone Stars, says: “We’re in Turkey for three friendly matches and our desire is to make our nation proud and at the same time continue to be respected in terms of Football.”
In all meetings between the two nations the Togolese Senior Men’s National team have over the years proven too tough for their Sierra Leonean counterparts. The Leone Stars have lost five times, drawn once and winning only one of their last eight meetings against the Togolese.
Both nations have not faced each other in a football showpiece since they last met in Freetown during a 2007 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers that was won 0-1 by the visitors.
Previously, both teams have only faced each other in AFCON qualifiers and the Togolese have since announced their dominance Sierra Leone.
In their first ever meeting, Togo had defeated Sierra Leone 3-0 on 14th November, 1982. Two weeks later in Freetown they picked up all three points in a 0-1 win, played to a barren 11 years later, lost 2-0 on 3rd September, 2000, won 2-0 in 2007, 3-1 on 24th March, 2007 and 0-1 on 2nd June that same year.
Credit: AIPS
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