Dubai: Senegal managed to secure the first win for an African nation at this World Cup as they defeated Poland 2-1 at the Otkritie Arena in Moscow on Tuesday evening.
An unfortunate own-goal from Maciej Rybus in the first half opened the scoring before Mbaye Niang doubled the tally by beating goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny to the ball and slotting home on 61 minutes. Grzegorz Krychowiak struck a consolation for Poland late on.
In-form forward Sadio Mane was promoted to captain for Senegal as coach Aliou Cisse benched his regular skipper Cheikhou Kouyate of West Ham united, giving his star player Mane added responsibility as the West Africans opened their World Cup campaign on the final day of Round 1 action in the groups.
Veteran Poland defender Kamil Glik failed to recover from a shoulder injury for the match and was also named on the bench by coach Adam Nawalka, who reverted to a four-man defence in his absence.
As expected, Bayern Munich sharpshooter Robert Lewandowski led the forward line, but he barely got a sniff in the first half as Poland looked oddly out of sorts.
There were too many slack passes in midfield, allowing Senegal to dominate possession and utilise their pace to hit Poland on the break.
However, apart from a half-hearted appeal for a penalty — Senegal’s 20-year-old Ismaila Sarr gong down under a challenge from Maciej Rybus — there was not much goalmouth action.
Mame Biram Diouf was flagged for offside before Piotr Zielinski headed over from eight yards out at the other end.
Senegal finally got the breakthrough their enterprise deserved as the break loomed. And it was somewhat fortunate.
Mbaye Niang skinned Michal Pazdan on the left wing left and he laid off to Mane.
He squared to Idrissa Gueye and his shot took a wicked deflection off Thiago Cione kand into the net.
Poland showed more intent after the break as they tried to get Lewandowski involved in the action more. The striker forced a great save from Khadim Ndiaye in the Senegal free-kick when he palmed away a goal-bound free-kick
But Poland found themselves further in arrears when midfielder Grzegorz Krychowiak played a poor backpass towards Szczesny, who had to come way off his line and out of his area in attempt to clear.
Niang stole in ahead of the keeper and coolly rolling the ball into the net, sending the already raucous Senegal fans into dreamland.
Krychowiak managed to pull one back in the dying minutes for Poland but it was too little, too late and the Africans deservedly took all three points.
