- Who: Senegal v Netherlands, Group A
- The place: Al Thumama Stadium
- When: Monday, November 21 at 16:00 GMT
- Rating: Senegal (18), Netherlands (8)
- Head-to-head document: None
Senegal and the Netherlands will head into their opening World Cup fixture excessive on confidence after a string of promising current performances.
In February, the Teranga Lions secured their first Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title after beating Egypt on penalties.
The Netherlands have additionally loved appreciable success of their continental exploits, topping their Nations League group and notching two morale-boosting wins towards their Benelux rivals, Belgium.
Powerful fixture for each
Monday’s match will possible characterize the best problem in Group A for each groups, who will fancy their probabilities towards Ecuador and Qatar, ranked forty fourth and fiftieth on the planet, respectively.
The competition at Al Thumama Stadium had promised to pit Liverpool’s mercurial centre-back Virgil van Dijk towards his former teammate and prolific goalscorer Sadio Mané. Nevertheless, this yr’s Ballon d’Or runner-up picked up a leg harm taking part in for German champions Bayern Munich and has been dominated out of the match, in a giant blow to the African champions that has left its supporters in shock.
“We all know that we’ve got misplaced an awesome chief however I believe that there can be extra gamers that can present themselves and we should be prepared,” defender Kalidou Koulibaly mentioned.
Midfielder Nampalys Mendy agreed.
“We now have to be prepared, prepared earlier than any eventuality, it’s true that the absence of Sado will hurt us enormously … as a result of he is a vital participant. We now have gamers of nice high quality too, so we’re assured in our high quality, and we are going to do every thing to indicate it.”
Nonetheless, Micky Jnr, a soccer journalist specialising in African soccer, expressed confidence that “this Senegal workforce will progress from the group”.
He expects Senegal to assert, at the least, some extent towards the Netherlands, or “perhaps shock the Europeans with a win”.
The midfield battle
On the again, each groups boast a number of world-class choices. Van Dijk is joined by the likes of Inter Milan’s Stefan de Vrij and Bayern Munich’s Matthijs de Ligt for the Oranje. Senegal can depend on Chelsea’s Koulibaly and RB Leipzig’s Abdou Diallo.
In between the sticks, Senegal seemingly have the higher hand with Chelsea’s Edouard Mendy.
Though the keeper has struggled for kind this season, his worldwide expertise far outweighs what the Netherlands provides. Dutch supervisor Louis van Gaal has but to decide on his primary, however prior to now two matches, he handed Ajax shot-stopper Remko Pasveer his first worldwide caps on the ripe age of 39.
In midfield, the Oranje boast the likes of Frenkie de Jong and the free-scoring Cody Gakpo, who continues to mild up the Dutch Eredivisie with 13 targets and 15 assists in 24 video games up to now this season.
“It’ll be a cagey sport; I believe the battle can be gained in midfield,” says Jnr, who highlights Senegal’s Pape Matar Sarr, a gifted footballer with an “glorious work fee” as somebody to look out for.
Senegal have some thrilling choices in assault, corresponding to Boulaye Dia, who’s at the moment on mortgage to Serie A aspect Salernitana from Villareal.
Nevertheless, Mané can be an enormous loss for Senegal, whose defence should deal with Memphis Depay who appears to have recovered from an harm.
“We now have gamers who play on the highest degree, the largest golf equipment on the planet. We now have expertise. We now have expertise. We now have a superb combination. However firstly, we’ve got workforce spirit. And I believe that’s the beginning and the important thing to success. It’s not assured success, in fact, however it’s a great way to begin,” van Dijk mentioned on Thursday, whereas additionally hailing van Gaal’s management.
“We now have a improbable supervisor, skilled supervisor,” he added.
“It’s going to be a really huge one towards the African champions and we’ll do every thing in our energy to hopefully get a superb outcome and begin our World Cup in one of the simplest ways potential.”