CAIRO (Egypt) - Former African champions Guinea will be seeking their first victory when they take on neighbors Mali in their second game at the FIBA U18 African Championship on Saturday.

Guinea, who won the 2000 edition and are participating in this competition for the first time since 2006, have lined up a strong team that will challenge the Mohamed Sidibe-inspired team. 

Point guard Ibrahima Diallo told FIBA.basketball that, "We are here to represent our country to the best of our abilities and we know how strong Mali is but we shall do everything to make sure that we win this game."

"As a team, we lapsed in the last minutes of the our game against Egypt but we have to do better than this. We were also missing two players and they will be with us for the game against Mali. It will be a tough game but we want to win."

Mali too just like Guinea lost their opener against Senegal and will be hoping to get onto the winning side at the end of the four quarters on Saturday. 

Mali captain Mohamed Sidibe, who took part in the FIBA U19 World Cup 2019 in Greece helping his side to the final, admitted that he would like to lead his country back to the international stage. 

Sidibe is key to Mali's charge

"Our objective as a team here is to qualify to the U19 World Cup next year and we shall do everything possible to be back there. Guinea is a good team and we know that they will be a tough opponent but we are ready for the challenge," Sidibe said. 

All the four participating teams will face each other in a round-robin tournament with the top-placed team taking on the fourth one on the table standings. The second will be against the third before the winners matchup in the final. The finalists will qualify for the FIBA U19 World Cup 2021. 

FIBA