World Cup Draw Group A : Senegal

The team is at 20^th FIFA rankings and appeared twice in the World Cup. The team made two World Cup appearances so far, in 2002. The team is beaming with confidence due to their current performances in the African football leagues, and it is expected to cross the group stage with ease. The Senegalese team won the qualifying match played against the Egyptians in a nail bitting shoot out .

The Senegal football team was formed in 1960, the same year they got independence from France. The Senegalese Football team was affiliated with FIFA in 1962. Senegal first appeared in the Africa cup of Nations in 1965. The team missed the 2014 World Cup following a defeat against the Ivory Coast. In 2017, however, Senegal qualified for the World Cup after defeating the South African team and went straight to the 2018 World Cup where they lost against Colombia and failed to reach the knock out stage. Their departure marked a unique record that a host nation was eliminated before reaching the round of 16. Senegal was the first team to be eliminated due to the controversial fair-play tiebreaker rule. Due to the ongoing conditions of COVID-19 many player were missing from the fields in 2020 that further affected Senegal’s performance in 2021 AFCON.

Senegal is one of the strongest teams in the Group A fixture and is expected to reach the round of 16, without much friction. However, there were several controversies related to the qualifying match played against Egypt. It was alleged that fans pointed laser lights onto Egyptian players while taking penalty shots. The Senegal team, however, won the penalty shootout by 3-1. Egypt and the team were bitter after the loss (second time to Senegal ) and it resulted in lodging of formal complaints by the Egyptian Football Association (EFA) to FIFA and Confederation of African Football (CAF).

Egypt FA stated that they are asking for a replay due to the strange ambience their team was subjected to during the match. If the match were conducted fairly they would congratulate the Senegal team for their victory.

Despite the controversial qualifying finals, Senegal is still one of the fan favorites from Group A and is expected to deliver quality performance and thus qualify from the group stages. The team gave their best performance in 2002 with their run to the quarterfinals and in 2018 they could not stand up to the mark. However, the team is confident of their performance as they were recently crowned the champions in Africa. Players like Sadio Mane, Kaloidou Koulibaly and Idrissa Gana Gueye are the key players for the Senegalese team and are currently in quite a strong spirit and working well as a unit. It would not come off as a surprise if the team tops the Group stage.