Despite a promising start to their 2018 FIFA World Cup campaign, Senegal and Africa’s hopes of a good outing at the Russia 2018 FIFA World Cup ended in a rather unprecedented manner. The Teranga Lions lost out on second place to Japan based on the FIFA fair play rule having picked up more yellow cards than the Asians.
Senegal came into match day three of the FIFA World Cup against Colombia knowing a point would be enough to seal qualification into the next round. Colombia on the other hand needed a victory to qualify irrespective of what happens in the other group game and it was the South Americans who got the much needed points to progress after a 73rd minute header from Yerry Mina.
Senegal surprisingly had the better chances in the game cutting through the Colombian defence on several occasions but couldn’t punish the South Americans. In the end, Senegal were made to rue their missed chances as being level on points and goal difference with Japan wasn’t enough to see them go through ahead of the Asians who had a better disciplinary record.
In the other game of Group H Jan Bednarek scored the only goal of the game to hand Poland all three points against Japan, as they ended their World Cup campaign on a high with star man Robert Lewandowski failing to register his name on the score sheet.
Colombia and Japan will have to wait for the result of the top of the table clash in Group G between England and Belgium on Thursday night to determine which of the two teams they will face in the next round.
