Senegal are tipped to have a strong outing at the 2022 FIFA World Cup on the back of winning their first-ever Africa Cup of Nations back in January.
In fact, Africa’s hopes of going past the quarter-finals lay on them and not on the other participants in Ghana, Tunisia, Morocco and Cameroon.
The Teranga Lions’ chances of achieving this was going to lie largely on the shoulders of Sadio Mane, the current African Player of the Year and runner-up at the 2022 Ballon d’Or awards, however, the Liverpool star sustained a knee injury in a Bundesliga match between his current club Bayern Munich and Werder Bremen which effectively ruled him out of the World Cup.
From this point, it seemed as though Senegal’s chances of impressing at the World Cup are now slim, especially in their Group A opener against two-time runners-up, the Netherlands which ended in a 2-0 defeat on Monday evening.
Aliou Cisse’s men, however, put in a very good shift without their talisman, pilling a lot of pressure on the men in orange.
Interestingly, Louis van Gaal had 203cm tall goalkeeper Andries Noppert to thank, who was making his international debut for the Netherlands. The Heerenveen shot-stopper made four saves, denying Idrissa Gueye twice, Youssouf Sabaly and Boulaye Dia, while Senegal number one Edouard Mendy made just a save in the entire 90 minutes.
The Senegalese had more total shots (15), more shots on target (4) and had more long ball accuracy (50%) and crosses (42%) compared to the Dutch at 36% and 28% respectively.
On the defensive side, they were also better in total duels won (53), tackles (14), interceptions (10) and clearances (32).
It is rather disappointing that with all these, the West African giants were let down by two late goals from Cody Gakpo and Davy Klaassen for the Dutch.
It’s a bitter pill to swallow but the 2021 African champions can be pleased with how they played against the Dutch.
Even though it makes Senegal’s path to making it out of the group phase much harder, with wins against Qatar and Ecuador all but necessary, they can take pride from their opener in Al-Thumama and use that to get the desired result in their next match against the World Cup hosts on Friday at the same venue.
They must not lose their guard but rather keep the same character and spirit while making sure they are more clinical and burying their chances early enough rather than waiting until later.
Mane might be the star man of Senegal but with a team that contains influential players like Kalidou Koulibaly, Idrissa Gueye, Nampalys Mendy and Ismalia Sarr, confidence and motivation is not a problem. It is left for them to do the needed job in their remaining two group matches.
