Football: Senegal and Oman meet for Olympic football berth today

Senegal and Oman meet in a play-off match on Monday to secure the final place at the men’s Olympic football tournament.
The winners will go into the hat for Tuesday’s draw for the 2012 Games.
The match is being played at Coventry City’s Ricoh Arena, one of the host venues for the Olympic tournament.
Senegal finished fourth in the inaugural African U23 championship to earn a play-off berth, while Oman won a mini-qualifying tournament in Asia.
Senegal have had several months to prepare for this game but their opponents were only confirmed at the end of March.
The west Africans have included nine players from the squad which finished fourth at the African championship, which took place in Morocco.
They have also been able to call up European-based stars Zargo Toure of Boulogne and Pape Souare of Lille – both of whom were missing from the qualifying tournament.
Rayo Vallecano of Spain have cleared Pape Diamanka to play against Oman as well.
Former Portsmouth star Aliou Cisse is Senegal’s U23 assistant coach and he told the BBC that securing an Olympic berth was more important than qualifying for the World Cup.
« My country has had the opportunity to play the World Cup [and] many many Africa Cups of Nations – but we have never had the opportunity to play at the Olympics.
« The Olympics is more important than the World Cup…because the Olympics is for under-23 players and if you don’t participate in the tournament, it’s finished for you. »
Gabon, Morocco and Egypt are Africa’s other qualifiers for the Games, while South Korea, Japan and the UAE will represent Asia whatever happens in Coventry on Monday.
Qualifying for the 2012 women’s competition has already been completed.
BBC NEWS