Lions Against Lions

England World Cup Spotlight - Round of 16

The first knockout test for the Three Lions after finishing top of their group was Senegal's Lions of Teranga. Though Senegal have proved to be a challenging adversary in this World Cup, England dismantled the opposing Lions with relative ease and secured a spot in the quarterfinals after a 3-0 triumph. 

Senegal was dealt a huge blow when injury ruled out their talisman Sadio Mané days before the first game. Mané is a devastatingly fast and direct winger, even placing second for the 2022 Ballon D’or. He featured in every game and scored three goals during their victorious Africa Cup of Nations campaign earlier this year, and smashed home the penalty that won them the title over Egypt. He then got another three goals in World Cup qualifiers, and again converted the decisive penalty that sent his country to the tournament at Egypt’s expense. Though his importance to the team is massive, manager Aliou Cissé was confident his side could perform in Mané’s absence, and they largely have.

In 2018, Senegal were painfully close to advancing from their group but were eliminated on the  yellow card accumulation tiebreaker. Driven by significant individual and collective success since then, they have put on a much stronger showing this year. Two wins over Ecuador and Qatar saw them advance as runners-up to the Netherlands. Hailed as Africa’s best chance of success at the tournament, the game against England unfortunately proved to be too much. 

Boulaye Dia, Ismaïla Sarr, and the rest of the Senegalese squad put on a strong opening performance and created a number of good chances. Shortly before the break, however, Jude Bellingham was at the heart of two English goals that snatched the game away. A third was added by Bukayo Saka not long after halftime, and Senegal’s hopes of advancing to the quarterfinals vanished. 

Aside from spending the first half hour on the back foot, England looked both professional and ruthless. All three goals were textbook examples of efficient fast-break attacks, especially given they took only four shots on target the whole game. Harry Kane finally opened his account too, a much needed lift for him and the team who will rely heavily on his contributions the further they go. Showing off with pinpoint through-balls and powerful dribbling runs, Gareth Southgate’s men are a group full of confidence. 

England’s attention now turns to a monumental quarterfinal clash with France, the defending champions. The French have also looked nearly perfect in their games, only slipping up to Tunisia after already confirming their advancement and playing a heavily rotated squad. 

Kylian Mbappé leads Les Bleus and the tournament with five goals in four games, including two stunners to send Poland packing. His electric pace puts any backline in grave danger (especially England’s, who have an average age of 30) and he will have to somehow be contained if England are to advance. Southgate and French manager Didier Deschamps have both utilized an attack-minded 4-2-3-1 formation which guarantees numbers in the midfield and allows wingbacks to fly forward and join the attack, but leaves exploitable space in their absence.

This sets up potentially one of the best matchups of the competition as neither will want to back down from their styles of overwhelming offense. Both teams are in such good form and possess so much individual talent that no matter which way the result goes, the world of soccer is in for a historic contest. 

Being drawn against France was a challenge that no team would’ve wanted going into Qatar, and nine goals scored in four games justifies their fearsome reputation. Even so, the Three Lions have scored 12 times themselves, and with many positives to take away from an assured Round of 16 victory over Senegal, they are one of the few teams that could take down the defending champions. Get ready for one of the games of the tournament.

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