Senegal take on Qatar in the second round of matches in Group A today afternoon in a must-win fixture for both teams if they are to keep their dreams of progressing to the knockouts alive.The two sides lost their opening matches in an identical 2-0, Senegal falling to the Netherlands as the host lost to Ecuador to record an unwanted statistic as they became the first host nation to lose the opening game in their own tournament.After holding the Netherlands for more than 80 minutes, the Teranga Lions finally crumbled in the 84th minute and saw their woes deepen in stoppage time as the Dutch doubled their lead in a match that many would have thought custodian Edourd Mendy would have done better, more so in the lead up to the goals.You can be sure Senegal fans will be bringing the party against Qatar 🇸🇳 🥁 #Qatar2022 | #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/YJaH0VSnTB— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) November 25, 2022 The Chelsea goalkeeper has however received backing from his coach Aliou Cisse, noting that he will be the man between the sticks against Qatar.”Edouard’s qualities speak for themselves. I don’t think that anyone is doubting him, sometimes he has highs, sometimes he has lows, he has my full trust… he will be on the pitch,” Cisse said.Senegal’s Ismaila Sarr was terrific on the attack and will be one of the players to watch in the match while Qatar needs to bring the best out of their forward Akram Afif who was mostly silent against Ecuador but has the potential to offer attacking returns for the host.##NAJAVA_MECA_6834087##The Maroons coach Felix Sanchez has backed his players to overcome their stage fright this time around when they face Senegal as they seek to record the first win on home soil against African teams having lost to Algeria twice and drawn with Egypt once previously.”We hope that now we are free from all the pressure that we had in the opening match. I hope we can compete and bring our ‘A Game’ and show that we can be more competitive than we were the other day. We are playing a very high-level team so we need to prove ourselves, play our game and see what happens,” Sanchez said during a pre-match conference.Nottingham Forest’s Cheikhou Kouyate is set to miss the encounter having been stretched off with a muscle issue against Holland although they have been handed a reprieve with Abdou Diallo already back to training despite suffering a setback in the same game.The match kicks off at 4 PM EAT.QATAR 2022 WORLD CUPFriday, Nov 25th1300 EAT: (2.30) Wales (3.10) Iran (3.70) B1600 EAT: (6.25) Qatar (3.50) Senegal (1.65) A1900 EAT: (1.80) Netherlands (3.60) Ecuador (5.20) A2200 EAT: (1.50) England (4.30) USA (7.75) B
