Lose to South Korea, Cameroon or Tunisia as the group phase suggests. Bad luck Senegal. Would have preferred to see them play full strength, instead of just hoping for the best.
Africa's best NT is France tbh. Plenty of the African teams' players started as French youth players. Many have won international youth cups before the complexities of making their respective senior european team prevented them from representing said nation.
Not all African NT players were developed in France, maybe on the Senegal case is more evident but I didn’t bothered to check this.
Kouyate and Idrissa Gueye were very evidently missed in the middle of the park. Their replacements were nowhere near the quality required. The younger guys need to step up quickly if they want to maintain the momentum built by Senegal over the last 8 years.
France against England is such tough game to predict for me. Any range of result and performance from that game is imaginable for me. From a thriller that one or the other wins 4:3, to a thrashing by one or the other, to a cautious and boring game between two sides worried about giving space to the other. Of course, I will be rooting for a thriller with Mbappe MOTM.
Dembele shaw maguire... mbappe saka, trippier, stones England probably been practicing something they seen this coming for months... Shaw, maguire stones walker trippier?
No one for England can compare to Mbappe individually, but the variety of top class, technically good, speedy, and efficient offensive weapons at England's disposal, makes them really a handful if they have the lead and, consequently, the space for any combination from Saka, Bellingham, Rashford, Sterling, Foden, and more, going against your team while your side is also trying to shutoff Kane (and prevent him from jump starting things by looking to such a variety of options before dashing into the box himself). France, of course, has its own weapons besides Mbappe: even without Benzema, they have Giroud, Dembele and Greizmann, but ultimately Mbappe is the key to France being able to make things work.
European teams are also missing half of their starters, what makes you think that its only Senegal having injury problems? Can't you just admit that the better team on the day won the game?
Of course the better team on the day won, but to say other teams even come close to the decimation of players that Senegal has had to withstand is laughable. Sadio Mane was just voted #2 player in the world. Don't act like that was not a major factor in yesterday's match. What would Argentina be without Messi ? Probably might not even have gotten out of their weak group. France without Mpabbe, nowhere near as deadly. How would Croatia do without Modric ?Take out Bellingham alone from yesterday's match and it would probably be a different outcome. On top of Mane, already a huge loss, they were missing 3 other key starters, plus another decent bench attacking option in Keita Balde who was suspended from the entire tournament. Even the top teams in the world cannot withstand that type of decimation to their squad and expect to produce (against one of the top teams in the world.)let alone a nation like Senegal. So beat your chest all you want, it just makes you look insecure.
What would England be without James, the worlds best wingback? Or Chilwell? They haven't been able to play Maddison (a player that the English are demanding Southgate puts in as soon as he's fit enough). Funny you should mention France, have you any idea of the talent they have missing, Benzema for example, Pogba, Nkunku or Kante!! I don't see France bemoaning their missing players? Fact is you said England's record against African opposition was 'not all that' when in reality England has NEVER lost to ANY African team in ANY football match - that's 22 games now, then you claimed that England would struggle against Senegal (fair enough) but when they didn't instead of just admitting the better team won on the day you come out with all manner of excuses, lets be honest, the game was pretty one sided, I doubt Mane would have made much difference to the end result & you think its ME that looks insecure! :-O I think with James England has a MUCH better chance at trying to keep control of Mbappe but I promise you I won't use his injury as an excuse if England go out to (lets be honest) probably the best national team on the planet right now.
England has much more depth to choose from. Senegal needed their best players. Stop being so insecure. England beat what was in front of them, but what was in front of them was far from Senegal's best team. Simple. And for the nth time: Gana and Kouyate in midfield make a massive difference. They are Senegal's leaders and midfield generals.
James wouldn’t even be the best wing back in the game if he played vs France. He’s good but I’ll take Theo any day over him. Or Alphonso Davies.. just to name a few.
Why were England given more than 2 minutes to score that second goal in the first half? They regained possession in their own half as 2 minutes expired. First half play should have been called.
I too think that should have been the whistle but the ref didn't want to blow mid action. The Senegalese player (Mendy) simply should have fouled there anyway and ended the half to regroup.
He's even mentioning Benzema when France won the world cup without him. I said before the tournament that Mane is the single most important player to any team in this tournament. Close seconds would be Modric, Messi, England could lose 4 or 5 key players and it still wouldn't have anything close to the impact (loss of overall quality) as Senegal losing Mane alone. Then add another 3 key players on top of losing Mane, plus their coach was sick and almost didn't make the match. And somebody is beating their chest. Smh.
I don't think anyone's being insecure, maybe just reacting to the suggestion that Senegal would definitely have won if they had all their players available. England are ranked 5, Senegal 18 (I think). It's going to be an England win more often than not, even if both squads are at full strength.
Losing Mane was enough for half of the posters to change their pick for from Senegal to Ecuador. Suddenly he wouldn't have made a difference... Also England fans seem to forgot how the game looked before Senegal went behind.
Who said they would have definitely won? I personally am countering claims that having Mane, Gana and Kouyate would make no difference. With Gana on the field that second goal is NEVER happening.
Nobody said Senegal definately would have won. The fact is that smaller teams NEED their key players to be able to compete with bigger teams. They don't have the depth to replace so many key players. I can't believe it's really that hard to understand this concept. And this yellow card rule is really stupid that teams have to make it past the quarters before they get wiped just to protect "star players" missing the final. Yet another way to rig the game for bigger teams, as if they need the help.
OK, fair enough. It probably would have been a closer match, but based on rankings the result (maybe not size of result), would probably been the same.
Yes they were STRUGGLING, like I had predicted. I also said that Senegal cannot be making the kind of cheap mistakes they made in the first round against England, and when they did it was game over from that point.