Africa’s highest ranked team, Senegal, will be challenging the Netherlands in the opening clash despite injury to their star player, Sadio Mane.
Senegal will be going head to head with Netherlands at 40,000 capacity Al-Thumama Stadium in Al-Thumana City, Qatar on 21 November 2022 at 16:00 UTC which is 7pm East African time.
The match is a part of the World Cup, Group A which will happen exactly 24 hours after the hosts’ opening match against Ecuador on Sunday.
In February, the Lions Of Teranga secured their first Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title after beating Egypt two winning penalties scored by Mane.
This sealed their first ever AFCON win and cemented their place in Qatar. They are currently ranked 4th while Netherlands at 2nd.
However, their top player Sadio Mane who doubles as a forward for Bayern Munich, was ruled out of the tournament because of a fibula injury that he got against Werder Bremen in the Bundesliga earlier. This is most definitely a major blow for Senegal in the 2022 World Cup.
This clearly leave a big hole to be filled with only Ismaila Sarr and Famara Diedhiou in double figures for goals scored for their national team.
However, head coach Aliou Cisse will have to adjust his tactical blueprint to cater for the absence of his star man.
Cisse’s side are tough to put down with six clean records in their last eight competitive matches that have proved to be the stronghold of their recent AFCON success and World Cup qualifier.
Senegal have appeared in the FIFA World Cup finals twice, in 2002 where they managed to reach the quarter finals and in 2018.
They were the first team in the World Cup history to be disqualified using the fair play rule after being tied with Japan on the first six tiebreakers.
BY CHRISTINE OMONDI.