Senegal have been widely criticised for their poor discipline at the defence, mostly in the last quarter of matches. This occurred many times during the qualifiers and in their two games played so far at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia.
Holding a fat two-goal lead against Poland in their opening game, the Teranga Lions let in an 86th minute strike from the White and Reds, which was repeated in their clash with Japan when they conceded the equalizer at the 78th minute to leave it at 2-2.
“I think it’s circumstantial because you always want to avoid last-minute goals and a few details will make the difference – that’s what we’ve worked on,” centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly said.
“We want to be perfectionist. We know it’s difficult to reach perfection and tomorrow we know Colombia are excellent.
“But we have a number of aces up our sleeves and we’ll try not to concede any goals. We know we have good attacking players who can score at any moment.”
Following the elimination of Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia and Nigeria from the tournament, Africa’s hope now rests on the shoulders of Senegal. But the Napoli star feels it a positive pressure.
“It is something positive rather than pressure,” he said. “We know the whole African continent is backing us, so it’s highly positive as I see it.
“We have the whole Senegalese people and the African continent behind us. We have to end this with flying colours and we’ll do our utmost to get to the round of 16. I think we have everything to do it and it’s very positive to have the whole continent behind us.”
Senegal are second in Group H, tied on same four points with leaders Japan, who will take on Poland in Volgograd also on Thursday
