Senegal claimed the first win for an African team at this year’s World Cup as they earned a 2-1 triumph against Poland in Moscow.
Everton’s Idrissa Gueye opened the scoring in the first half, although his effort took a huge deflection off the unfortunate Thiago Cionek. They doubled their advantage after the break, but in controversial circumstances when Mbaye Niang sprinted back on to the field of play after injury and immediately intercepted Grzegorz Krychowiak’s woeful backpass, before beating goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny to slot home.
Krychowiak’s fine header late on made the last few minutes interesting but Senegal held on.
Here, we analyse the performance of Poland pivot Robert Lewandowski, who endured a miserable evening in Moscow.
STATISTICS
Goals – 0
Assists – 0
Shots – 2
Shots on target – 1
Touches – 23
Passes – 18
Key passes – 0
Dribbles – 1
Dispossessed – 2
30-SECOND REPORT
16 goals were plundered in qualifying, but against the Lions of Teranga the prolific Pole hardly had a sniff.
Polskie Orly (the Polish Eagles) failed to fly as they were grounded by a Senegal performance full of bite and energy – the travails of their star man indicative of their collective failure to get going in their World Cup opener.
GOT RIGHT
Getting involved – Kept quiet in the first half, the big striker tried to take the game by the scruff of the neck after the break, and gave us a glimmer of what he is all about when he fired a ferocious free-kick that needed clawing out of the top corner by Khadim N’Diaye.
As his side struggled to feed their frontman, he dropped deep, covering a tremendous amount of ground to try and drag his side back into the game.
GOT WRONG
Just not his day – Lewandowski is used to being the main man in most situations, but this is especially true at international level. He will hardly have endured quite as much frustration in a white shirt as he did in this game. Nothing seemed to stick, no matter how much he tried to influence things. Three unskilled touches, the most of any teammate and second overall behind Mame Biram Diouf, underlined his day.
VERDICT
Had a bold lightning bolt shaved into his head for a fresh World Cup haircut, but Poland’s star man failed to strike the high notes, as he was both starved of service and struggled to get into the game. Senegal were tenacious in defence and their full-blooded approach meant they never gave Poland’s danger man time on the ball to make his mark.
RATING: 5/10
All statistics are compiled using whoscored.com