Senegal made their mark in this year’s World Cup after their humbling of France in the 2002 World Cup. Robert Lewandowski was looking to keep up his club form in this match as part of the eight-ranked team in the world, but they were outplayed by Senegal tonight.
Senegal led the first half of the match, courtesy Idrissa Gueye’s shot which deflected by Cionek into his own goal!
As Poland started to get back into the game, they pressed Senegal for parity. However, Senegal seemed very dangerous on counter-attacks. A wild pass back into his own half by Krychowiak was intercepted by Niang who was brought on to the field by officials after he was sidelined for a couple of minutes injured. Niang came in from Krychowiak’s blind side and by the time he spotted Niang coming in at full speed, it was too late already! He had passed the ball to Szczesny who dashed forward from his goal to receive the ball. Niang expertly took the ball to leave Szczesny stranded in the middle and finished into an empty net. The goal stood and effectively put the nail in the coffin for Poland to win or get parity in tonight’s match.
The only notable effort came from Lewandowski in the second half when he came close to scoring with a free-kick, but it was saved well by the Senegal goalkeeper. Poland pressed hard from then onwards, and Krychowiak redeemed himself somewhat for the 2nd Senegal goal when he headed in from a free-kick with five minutes left from time. However, that was too little and too late from Poland.
Senegal hung in with attacking football and denied Poland the equalizer, registering their first win in the World Cup after 16 years.
