The Lions’ Captain had said it during the pre much press conference against Poland. Well, the promise has been kept. They played the game as if it were a final and at the end all their effort was rewarded. Cheikhou Kouyaté and his teamates neutralized the powerful Polish machine. A victory that takes Senegal team to the top of the group H along with Japan, who surprisingly defeated Colombia (2-1) earlier in the day.
The lions were more realistic at the beginning of the match. Lewandowski’s teammates dominated the ball possession but failed to have good game flow allowing them to score.
Thus Thiago Cionek’s own goal, the defender deflecting in a shot from Idrissa Gueye, handed Senegal the lead in the 37th minute.
Senegal doubled their lead when M’Baye Niang took advantage of a mix-up between Grzegorz Krychowiak and Wojciech Szczesny to finish with ease in the 60th minute.
Four minutes before regulat time Krychowiak somewhat made amends for his error and scored a beautiful goal but Poland could not find a late leveller.
Senegal’s victory gave Africa its first World Cup success in 2018, after the defeats of Morocco, Tunisia, Nigeria and Egypt. An Egyptian team that has almost failed to reach the knockout stages, because of its second loss 3-1 to host country Russia on Tuesday evening.