Sadio Mane starred in Senegal’s 4-0 win over South Sudan in the Football World Cup 2026 qualifiers game.
Sadio Mane had a very good game for Senegal in the World Cup 2026 qualifiers game against South Sudan. The experienced campaigner starred in the team’s win against South Sudan in a pretty empty stadium near Dakar on the 18th of November. Mane scored 2 goals in the match and helped Senegal to claim a win to enter the top spot in their group ahead of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
In the first match of round one of Group B, Mane helped himself with a goal in the first half of the match. The Saudi Arabia-based forward is aiming to take Senegal for their third straight appearance in the Football World Cup. The Two-time African Footballer of the year award winner scored a goal in the 37th second of the game to give an early lead to the team.
For the match against South Sudan, there was no crowd, as the match between Senegal and Egypt saw trouble from the crowd last year. Five minutes after scoring the first goal, Mane attempted to score the second goal of the game, but it had to be ruled out. In the first goal, Mane set up Pape Sarr and hit a low shot to get past the goalkeeper of South Sudan.
The second goal saw Mane tackling Habib Diallo with a back heel and got ruled out due to shirt pulling towards the close range. In another instance, Mawith, one of the Australian-based players from South Sudan, was taken apart in the final minute of the first half. Mane scored that second goal of the match by converting a penalty to goal in the 56th minute of the game.
The initial schedule had 27 matches on the first match day. But one of them got canceled as Eritrea withdrew against Morocco in Group E. The 2022 World Cup semifinalists will be up against Tanzania, who started their campaign with a win over Niger with a margin of 1-0. Debutante Charles M’Mombwa scored a goal in the 56th minute of the match.
Zambia won the match against Congo Brazzaville by 4-2 on the 17th of November. South Africa topped Group C with a 2-1 over Benin in Durban. The hosts of the 2010 World Cup have not qualified for the big tournament since then. Percy Tau and Khuliso Mudau helped South Africa to win the game by scoring goals in the early and later parts of the game respectively.
In the second half, it seemed as if Benin aimed for a comeback. The bad game from them allowed them to be in the game, as Steve Mounie scored a goal with 20 minutes left in the game. South Africa did well to close the game without further hiccups. On the 19th of November, the second round of the tournament starts. Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, Congo, and 6 other teams will be in action.
