“We must stop believing getting past the first round is a great achievement — winning the World Cup is a great achievement,” Senegal captain Kalidou Koulibaly once said in criticism of African teams who go to the global showpiece looking to progress to the knockout stages.
Once that goal of finishing in the top two in the preliminary round is achieved, many African countries have then relaxed, content that they have done well. But Koulibaly disagrees and will no doubt be cajoling and encouraging his Lions of Teranga teammates to aim for the biggest prize.
African champions Senegal, seem to have been hit — if a report in France’s sports bible L'Équipe is confirmed when hugely respected coach Aliou Cissé names his final squad on Friday — by Sadio Mané being ruled out of the tournament.
The newspaper reported a tendon injury picked up on Tuesday for Bayern Munich in their 6-1 Bundesliga win against Bremen by the top player in Africa, and one of the best in the world, will take weeks to recover. Bayern had earlier said the injury was not serious.
Koulibaly would have had former Liverpool star Mané in mind as being in Senegal’s ranks in Qatar when the Chelsea defender was talking up the Lions’ chances in the build-up to the tournament, saying in one interview that their unity is going to be their strength.
“We have a united team, a family. Everybody is playing for everybody,” he told Deutsche Welle website. “This is the spirit we bring to everything. We have to represent the flag of Senegal when we play. At the World Cup, we want to show the world we are a great team — the best in Africa and one of the best in the world.”
The best teams in the world reach and win World Cup finals. But history seems to suggest that conquering all in Qatar could be an unrealistic dream for Senegal — more so, of course, if they do not have Mané.
After all, the best that an African country has done at the global spectacle has been to reach the quarterfinals — a feat achieved by just three countries. Senegal are among those, the Lions of Teranga having progressed to the last eight at the 2002 tournament co-hosted by South Korea and Japan, after a famous 1-0 shock win over defending champions and former colonial masters France in the opening game. Cameroon did it at Italy 1990, and Ghana were quarterfinalists in South Africa in 2010.
For this year’s edition, Senegal definitely go to Qatar as Africa’s best representatives. They carry the title of African champions, with Mané the instrumental player at the Covid-19-delayed Africa Cup of Nations in Cameroon, where the Lions edged Egypt on penalties in the final in February.
And of the five African participants in Qatar, Senegal are in arguably the “easier” group alongside Netherlands, Ecuador and the hosts. On the face of it, Senegal should progress along with the Dutch from Group A. Again, because it cannot be stressed enough, Mané’s presence could be crucial in that endeavour.
Football, though, is also not as clear-cut as that. Ecuador could well prove a banana skin for the team coached by Cissé, who is eager to make up for the disappointment of his debut World Cup as coach in 2018. In Russia, Senegal were unfortunate to end third in Group H on goal difference to Japan from a win against Poland (2-1), draw against the Samurai Blue (2-2) and defeat against Colombia (1-0). Senegal are itching to make up for that agonisingly close exit. Cissé admits his team will have to dig deep to get past Group A in 2022, where hosts Qatar are the surprise holders of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup and desperate to make an impression on home soil.
“We know it is a huge task ahead of us, but we will try our best to make our people and our continent proud,” he told DW.
“Going to this World Cup, we have ambitions. But as I say, we must first take the matches one after the other. First, our objective is to get out of the group then we know that in knockout games of the last 16 and quarterfinals, we have enough experience to say our piece in the competition.”
Cissé enjoys the backing of his fellow countrymen and his former teammate in the 2002 World Cup team, highly talented former African Footballer of the Year El Hadji Diouf, who said the nation expects him to lead the side to an excellent tournament.
“We can call Aliou coach, but he is a born leader. We are all together behind this team, for one thing — to make this team one of the best in the world,” the former Liverpool, Bolton Wanderers and Blackburn Rovers striker told DW.
But for Senegal to realise their objective of a splendid tournament, they may need the reports of the extent of Mané’s injury to be overblown and the Bayern man to be at his best. It is through his genius that they are going to Qatar, Mané having scored the winning penalty against Egypt in the play-off. He had shown his resilience and mental strength in the Nations Cup final against the Pharaohs when he stepped up to take the decisive spot-kick in the shoot-out and scored, having earlier missed a regulation-time penalty.
Senegal possess the second-best player in the world after France’s Karim Benzema — at least if the 2022 Ballon d’Or’s final standings are the official marker of that. That should be enough motivation for Senegal to believe they can do enough to change the African perception that getting past the first round is a great achievement.
It is a tall ask but one a team boasting another world-class performer in Chelsea goalkeeper Édouard Mendy, among other stars competing in the world’s top leagues, should have reason to believe they can achieve.
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