England loses to Senegal at home, losing to African team for the first time

English men's football team ushered in a milestone in the early morning of June 11, losing 1-3 to Senegal at home in the warm-up match. This is the first time that the "Three Lions" team lost to an African team in history. England had previously achieved an unbeaten record of 15 wins and 6 draws in 21 games against African teams. This game is also the first time that England has conceded as many as 3 goals in a match against African teams.

fans knew that Senegal probably reached the finals in the 2002 World Cup, which is the only World Cup that the Chinese men's football team has reached the finals so far. At that time, Senegal defeated defending champion France 1-0 in the opening game, and Senegal finally reached the quarterfinals of the 2002 World Cup. The captain of the Senegal team, Cise, later served as the head coach of Senegal for a long time, and led the team to win the only African Cup championship in team history in 2022. Cise left office at the end of last year. Senegal's current coach Seyavan was also one of Senegal's international players participating in the 2002 World Cup, and was a substitute forward at the time.

Senegal's biggest star Mane missed the national team game for personal reasons, but his teammates are enough to beat England and create the history of African teams. Compared with the last game when he defeated the weak team Andorra only 1-0 in the World Cup qualifiers, England coach Tuchel made a 10-man rotation in the starting lineup in this game, and only captain Kane continued to start. His offensive partners were replaced by Palmer, Rodgers, Maduaike, and Bellingham to Gordon, Eze, Saka and Rice.

This game was played at Nottingham City Stadium, the home court of the Premier League powerhouse Nottingham Forest. In just 7 minutes of the game, Gordon's shot caused Senegalese goalkeeper Edward Mendy to lose the ball, and Kane's follow-up shot took the lead for England. Edward Mendy is Tuchel's main goalkeeper when he led Chelsea to the Champions League championship in 2021. He has already rushed to the Saudi Super League with Senegal's main central defender Kulibali to make gold. They are not at their peak.

Senegal equalized the score in the 40th minute, Chelsea forward Jackson made a cross from the right, Crystal Palace midfielder Sal grabbed a shot and knocked on Henderson's ten fingers, and England veteran Walker desperately returned to add tackles but failed to really interfere with Sal. In the 62nd minute, midfielder Diyala, who played for Strasbourg in Ligue 1, overtook Senegal's score.

Edward Mendy was very excited to meet many old Premier League opponents. He saved Gibbs White and Saka's must-see shots, and England failed to equalize the score. In injury time, England's front-court free kick cooperation was not threatening, Senegal made a fast break, and forward Sabali, who played for the French Ligue 2 team Metz in the 2024-2025 season, secured the victory for Senegal.

Former Manchester United captain Keane continued to criticize England after the game, especially Walker's performance when he conceded the ball: "If this is a young right-back, you would think it is inexperienced, but I think Walker is lazy, he just is too lazy to chase back. As an experienced player, you can't make such a mistake."

Tuchel suffered a defeat in his fourth game in coaching England, and his record of not conceding in the first three games was also severely broken in this game. England's previous three opponents, Albania, Latvia and Andorra, are both second-rate European teams or weak teams. This time, they encountered the top African team Senegal. England is a similar laziness to the ones they played against Andorra, and it seems not surprising that they suffered a defeat.

Tuhull said after the game: "This result is of course disappointing. It is not certain whether we should have achieved better results. The team has been stiff and lacked vitality for a long time. It is too easy to concede the first two goals. We must strengthen our defense. Our reaction when we were behind the score is worthy of recognition. The players suddenly became active, relaxed, smooth and more aggressive. We had the excellent opportunity to equalize the score."

Text丨Reporter Liu Yi

Picture丨Visual China