Gamtel football club of the Gambia made it through to the next round of the WAFU Cup following a 5-4 penalty shoot-out win over Nyarri Talli of Senegal at the Independence Stadium in Bakau on Sunday.

Following a goalless stalemate in Dakar a fortnight ago, the two sides played another barren 90 minutes in Banjul to force the game into post-match penalties despite the Gambian side playing with 10 men for almost an hour after the expulsion of midfielder Sarja Jarjusey in the 34th minute.

Gamtel and Gambian international Musa Camara was the hero of the shoot-out by stopping two of the seven spot kicks and scoring one himself from eleven yards to send his side into the second round of the Eyadema Cup at the expense of the Senegalese premier league side. Tapah Manneh’s Gamtel started the better side and were causing all sorts of problems for Nayrri Talli in the opening minutes of the game.

They had several opportunities to take the lead in front of a less than half filled Stadium in Bakau and the scoreline was deceiving as they went into the break. At least, the Telecommunication giants should’ve gone into the halftime team talk with a 3-0 advantage but failed to take any of them. Modou Sarr was guilty of two great opportunities while his strike partner Assan Nyang missed the best chance of the entire game after he struck the post midway into the opening half with the goal at his mercy. Gamtel lose star midfielder Sarja Jarjusey to a second bookable offence in the 34th minute and were forced to play the remaining 56 minutes with ten men but from that point their aims were to go into the break without conceding.

Gamtel came into the second half with a defensive setup to compensate for their numerical disadvantage and the character and determination shown by the Gambian FA Cup champions makes it hard to notice that disadvantage. They had a couple of decent chances to score the opener on the break but the Nyarri Talli goalkeeper was equal to everything that was thrown at him.

Nyarri Talli’s opportunities though were limited to only half chances as they were not given any chance by the Gamtel back four marshaled by Captain Matarr Nyang and Modou Ndow who also scored the winning penalty. In the end, Gamtel were deserved winners of the tie and they will now keenly await their next opponents in the competition from the organisers.