Senegal, the first African country competing in the ongoing 2022 FIFA World Cup was defeated 0-2 by the Netherlands at the Al Thumama stadium (Doha).
Despite being a difficult match, the African champions and highest-ranked African team were hoping to win their opening group game against the Netherlands.
The Senegalese played their hearts out throughout the game, missing a couple of chances until the Netherlands defeated them 0-2 in the second half, thanks to goals from Cody Gakpo and D. Klaassen in the 85th and 90th minutes respectively.
Senegal seem to lack creativity in their final third throughout the game due to the absence of their talisman, Sadio Mane, who has suffered injury and ruled out of action for three months.
The absence of Sadio Mane, according to Senegalese coach Aliou Cissé, post-match press conference will cause the team problems.
“We are disappointed that we did not score; we had two or three excellent chances. We had to be more effective in front of the goal “Cisse stated following the game. Ismaila [Sarr] and Krepin [Diatta] are in charge there, but Mane’s absence is obviously a problem for us.” Our attackers are skilled, and we are well aware of their capabilities.”
“It was a difficult game.” We’ll have to work on it with Ismaila and the others. We have high expectations for him and Krepin the Coach told the media.
Some are also of the view that Senegalese goalkeeper Edouard Mendy’s poor goalkeeping let the team down.
The Chelsea goalkeeper has had poor record in his recent performance after having a good season when he first arrived at the London club in 2020/2021, which saw him named the best goalkeeper in the world when Chelsea won the Champions League.
Senegal is now in third place in Group A with no points as the Netherlands lead the group. Ecuador comes second with Qatar relaxing at the bottom.
Senegal’s next match is against Qatar on Friday, when Cisse will be hoping for some improvement from his forward line and have their first win of the tournament.
Tunisia will play Denmark in their first match of the tournament on Tuesday at 13:00GMT at the Education City Stadium (Al Rayyan).
The North African country has put up strong performances on their way to the 2022 FIFA World Cup, suffering only one defeat in their last five matches played.
In the same group, current world champions, France will face Australia on Tuesday evening at 19:00GMT at the Al Janoub Stadium (Al Wakrah).
Meanwhile, one of the tournament favorites Argentina are in battle with Saudi Arabia in group C’s opening encounter at the Lusail Iconic stadium with Argentina leading at the time of filing the story whilst at 16:00GMT, Mexico will take on Poland in the same group at Stadium 974 (Doha).
Source: Mybrytnewsroom.com/Phillip Addo-Danso
