Yekaterinburg: Senegal squandered lead twice in their second Group H match against Japan to end up playing out a 2-2 stalemate Sunday and for Senegal captain Sadio Mane, it was a wasted opportunity.
The Liverpool forward scored his first World Cup goal in the match, so there was something to celebrate. But Mane clarified that he wasn’t satisfied with the result.
Mane is a player with a lot of expectations on our team. He can do better than what he is doing. Frankly speaking, he has to (perform better), if we have to advance
Aliou Cisse/Senegal coach
“Frankly speaking, I think we are a bit disappointed. And that’s normal because there was a way to win this match,” Mane said. “We started this game well. We were dangerous, but in the end we scored and they managed to equalise,” said the 26-year-old.
Two preventable goals were allowed, as far as Mane was concerned. “There was a way for us to win the match and we didn’t do it,” Mane said. “We can’t underestimate the Japanese team that played very well. They managed to create quite a lot of opportunities and they scored twice. And now we have to admit it,” he added.
The final group game against Colombia will be decisive and the forward is hoping for a positive result. “We’re going to try to manage this and extract the positive points to qualify for the last 16.”