Senegal’s Teranga Lions made Africans proud on Tuesday evening with a 2-1 defeat of Poland at the Spartak Stadium in their opening Group H match at the FIFA World Cup in Russia.
This feat preceded Egypt’s 1-3 loss to host Russia in their second game in Group A also on Tuesday.
The loss confirms Egypt as the first team and African side to crash out of the soccer fiesta.
Even if Uruguay loses to Saudi Arabia, Egypt cannot qualify ahead of the South American team because of FIFA’s head-to-head rule which favour Uruguay ahead of Egypt, having been defeated by the South American team in their first match at the tournament.
Africans at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia have been wearing forlorn faces after four of their five teams lost.
But Senegal gave signs of making the difference by holding their own before the 44,190 crowd who were witnessing a match fought from end to end in the opening minutes.
The Poles did hold the advantage in possession though, but after a neat move in the 37th minute, Senegal opened scoring.
Idrissa Gueye’s shot was deflected in by Thiago Cionek to give the Lions a deserved lead.
Senegal knew what they needed to do thereafter, holding off Poland to take their advantage into the second half, when they tightened the back and still surged forward on the break.
Midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak was soon to make a costly error, playing a high, aimless back pass.
Striker M’Baye Niang controlled the ball ahead of an advancing goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny before tapping into an empty net.
Krychowiak pulled a goal back in the 86th minute with a header from Kamil Grosicki’s free-kick.
But Senegal held on.
Poland are the group’s highest-ranked side at number eight, but they struggled to create further chances with a free-kick from captain Robert Lewandowski one of just four shots on target.
Senegal who are making only their second World Cup appearance now lead the group ahead of Japan, who beat Colombia 1-0 earlier on Tuesday.
NAN reports that Senegal’s victory has now become a breath of fresh air for Africa since Friday when Egypt lost their opening Group A match to Uruguay at Ekaterinburg.
The Egyptians had lost to a Jose Gimenez 89th minute goal, and since then three other African teams have lost their opening group games.
Hours after Egypt’s loss, Morocco lost 0-1 to Iran at Saint Petersburg in a Group B match, through Aziz Bouhaddouz’s own goal in the fifth minute of added time.
Nigeria worsened the situation by losing 0-2 to Croatia at Kaliningrad on Saturday in Group D, through an Oghenekaro Etebo own goal and a Luka Modric penalty kick.
Tunisia went on to add to Africans’ misery on Monday by losing 1-2 to England in Group G at Volgograd.
They gave the game away in the first minute of added time when Harry Kane completed his brace with the winning goal.
Meanwhile, Egypt failed to salvage their reputation as Africa’s football power house, falling 1-3 to hosts Russia, in their second game in Group A on Tuesday.
Despite that star striker Mohamed Salah scored a penalty at the 73rd minute, it was not enough to salvage the Pharaohs, as Russia romped home to victory at Saint Petersburg.
The loss made the Egyptians certain to be the first team to head home from the tournament, with no point so far.
Russia meanwhile are at the brink of qualifying for the knockout stage, having got the maximum six points in their two games.
Uruguay and Saudi Arabia, the other teams in the group will play on Wednesday.
Uruguay already have three points off Egypt and would hope to extend their winning streak in the match against Saudi Arabia.
A three-goal blitz in the space of 15 minutes early in the second half put the Russians firmly in command of the game in St. Petersburg before Egypt’s Mohamed Salah, who had a subdued game on his return from injury, struck from a penalty, awarded after a video review.
Should Uruguay (3 points) beat Saudi Arabia (0 points) on Wednesday, it will ensure the South Americans and the Russians go through to the round of 16 with a game to spare.
A draw would also send the hosts through.
It is an unexpectedly positive situation for a Russian side that came into this tournament amidst scepticism and pessimism at home.
After the two confident victories, with eight goals, the public appear to have taken the team to their hearts.
Far from being over-awed by the pressure on them to perform, there is a real look of confidence and at times swagger about Stanislav Cherchesov’s side, who beat Saudi Arabia 5-0 in the opening game.
Egypt, whose final group game is against the Saudis, have only the slimmest of chances of staying in the tournament although they will at least be hopeful of picking up a first win in what is their third World Cup.
Hector Cuper’s side looked confident given the return of their talisman Salah, but the forward was short of full sharpness and made little impact in what was a tight first half.
But just two minutes after the interval, Russia got their breakthrough and they never looked back.
Aleksandr Golovin’s cross was punched out by Egyptian keeper Mohamed El-Shenawy, only as far as Roman Zobnin whose low drive was heading wide until Ahmed Fathi’s outstretched leg turned the ball into his own net.
Remarkably, it was the fifth own goal of the tournament so far. The record amount for a World Cup is six in 1998.
If there was some good fortune to the opener, the Russians’ second was pure quality.
Alexander Samedov pushed the ball out wide to Mario Fernandes, the Brazilian born right back who had powered forward from deep to deliver a perfect pull-back into the path of Denis Cheryshev who slotted home his third goal of the tournament.
Two minutes later it was 3-0 via a route one play, as target man Artem Dzyuba chested down a long ball, bustled past Ali Gabr and drove home.
Nigeria are playing on Friday at Volgograd, also needing to win to stay on from Group D. – NAN.
