Qatar 2022 | Group A: Tricky for Senegal to get past Qatar, Netherlands

Africa's best hope, 2022 Africa Cup of Nations winners Senegal, have a tricky group to progress past where hosts Qatar will be desperate to reach the second round and 2010 finalists Netherlands are the most pedigreed combination.

Competitive Ecuador’s presence makes Group A far tougher than it appears at first sight.

Qatar

Qatar have not been a powerhouse of Asian or Middle Eastern football but, unlike Bafana Bafana, who hosted a World Cup in 2010 when SA football was in the doldrums, the Maroons' star has risen at perhaps the right moment. In 2019 Qatar's FA sacked coach Jorge Fossati and appointed former Barcelona youth coach Félix Sánchez and tasked him with picking more younger players, and less nationalised (ex-foreign) players.

Sanchez, 46, was little known outside Qatar, but had earned a reputation in the country for his work with the Aspire Academy of Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and the country's Under-17 and U-23 teams, so he also knew the players from a young age and vice versa. Given the young coach and team, little was expected of Qatar at the 2019 Asian Cup, a competition in which they had best finishes of two quarterfinal placings.

They won it, beating hosts United Arab Emirates 4-0 in the semifinals and Japan 3-1 in the final. Qatar’s results of the past two years have been a mixed bag but good enough to preserve a 48th world ranking. Playing in their first World Cup as hosts will be a huge challenge, but with a nation behind them Qatar may also be no pushovers.

Ecuador

Ranked 44th and competitive, after not qualifying before 2002, Ecuador have enjoyed some success in the World Cup since. They qualified again in 2006, where they had their best finish in Germany in the last-16; qualified again in 2014, finishing 17th; and reached Qatar in 2022 as the fourth-placed of South America's one-group qualification format.

Argentinean coach Gustavo Alfaro, formerly of Boca Juniors, organises a solid outfit from front to back. Captain Enner Valencia of Fenerbahce leads the line and is hugely experienced, with an impressive 35 goals in 74 internationals. La Tri’s experienced core is bolstered by emerging talent with explosive potential, notably Valladolid right wing Gonzalo Plata, 21 and Brighton midfielder Moisés Caicedo, 20.

Senegal

Football fans in Africa and many elsewhere are aware of Senegal’s credentials as the continent's most consistent performers of the past half-decade under an exceptional coach in Aliou Cissé and led by an outstanding talent in Sadio Mané. With many more stars than Mane, notably Chelsea goalkeeper Édouard Mendy, this Senegal are among the strongest combinations to have represented Africa at a World Cup, but need to negotiate their deceptively tricky group.

Cissé's generation might be as strong as the team he played for that stunned world champions France at the 2002 World Cup and reached the quarterfinals, losing in extra time there against Turkey – they might even be better. Under Cissé, who was an excellent player and is a fine coach, they are a bonded, all-Senegalese unit who have reached the final in the last two Nations Cups and exited in the group stage of the 2018 Russia World Cup. They will hope to be peaking in the balance between experience and being fresh enough to perhaps be ready to become Africa's first World Cup semifinalists.

Netherlands

Famously the World Cup bridesmaids as three-time losing finalists - with Rinus Michels’ Johan Cruyff-led Total Football combinations of 1974 and 1978, and in SA in 2010 - this Netherlands are something of an unknown quantity having rebuilt from failing to qualify in 2018. Holland, though, always have world class talent, like Virgil van Dijk, who may be the best defender in the world.

Louis van Gaal, battling prostate cancer but determined to take the team to Qatar, is a Dutch coaching legend. They won seven, drew two and lost just one – 4-2 in their opening match against Turkey – of their group qualifiers, and with stars such as Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong, Bayern Munich’s 20-year-old midfield starlet Ryan Jiro Gravenberch and Barcelona forward star Memphis Depay, Netherlands will always be a force.

* The 2022 Fifa World Cup kicks off on November 20 and the final is on December 18. TimesLIVE will profile all eight groups, the tournament favourites, star players and five African teams over the coming weeks.