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MOSCOW, June 20 ― Senegal's discipline and faith in themselves as a new generation of African talent were key to their 2-1 win over Poland yesterday, said coach Aliou Cisse, refusing to accept the result was all down to errors by the Group H seeds. Neither side's goalkeeper was troubled for much of m88 the 90 minutes but an own goal and a stray back pass handed all the advantage to Senegal, playing in their first World Cup in 16 years, before the Poles secured a late consolation.
“Senegal won due to discipline,” said Cisse, who captained the side which famously beat defending champions France in their first ever World Cup match in 2002. “You saw a Senegal team very solid, very compact. We were able to put them under pressure. “Every time they made a mistake we were able to find the action we needed and get back at them. We managed really well to get them out of their comfort zone in the first half.”
Cisse, a defensive midfielder who spent his playing days in England and France, has faced criticism since taking over three years ago for being too cautious in his approach and not making enough of attacking talent around Liverpool winger Sadio Mane. But fresh from an unexpected victory that sets the m88 login West Africans up well to get out of a group which also includes Japan and Colombia, Cisse was making no excuses for shutting down a Poland attack centred around Robert Lewandowski. “Senegal prevented Poland from playing,” he said.
“You should give credit for that... We knew that Robert Lewandowski was a key element... and we played it very tight.” Fragility in the face of tightly drilled European sides has in the past been seen as a factor in holding back African teams, only two of which have matched Senegal's feat of reaching the quarter-finals in 2002.
None has done better than that. But a squad built around Mane and of more modest ability mostly, playing their football at French and English clubs less distinguished than Liverpool, showed on Tuesday that they can nullify better funded opponents, even if Poland had an off day. Captain Cheikhou hot photos Kouyate, who started on the bench, said ahead of the match that they had been worked “like dogs” over the past weeks by Cisse, who said he was proud of his players.
