Following their 3-1 defeat to France in their opening match, Senegal must beat Norway tomorrow morning to avoid an early exit from the FIFA World Cup.
Senegal coach Pape Thiaw has promised that his team is fully focused, saying they would “die for Africa” to keep their World Cup campaign alive at New York-New Jersey Stadium on Tuesday morning.
The Teranga Lions will face a Norway side that thrashed Iraq 4-1 in their opening match of the tournament as they seek to win more than one game in a single World Cup campaign for the first time.
Thiaw described the must-win encounter as a difficult challenge.
“A difficult match is expected. We prepared well, analyzed well, their visuality, and their strengths. So there you have it, now we are determined. We know that this is an important match, a final for us,” he said during the pre-match press conference.
Thiaw is aware that defeat would bring an end to Senegal’s campaign.
“In order to continue, we know that a negative result could deprive us of qualification, and we want to stay in this competition to go as far as possible. So tomorrow we face the Norwegian team, which is a very good team and very strong offensively and also athletically. Now we are prepared for this challenge to go for the three points.”
Norway boast a formidable side led by Erling Haaland, who has already scored two goals in his debut World Cup campaign. However, Thiaw believes his defenders have the experience required to contain the Manchester City striker.
“It is not an anti-Haaland plan; it is an anti-Norway plan,” Thiaw added. “We have defenders that have played in high-level competitions who have come across strikers of this calibre before.
“When we come up against Haaland, we need to be on our guard. But most important is how we stop the Norwegian team as a whole.”
The match between Norway and Senegal will kick off at 02:00 Central African Time on Tuesday morning.
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