Kalidou Koulibaly concedes ‘my mistakes’ cost Senegal defeat against Norway in World Cup
The Lions of Teraga’s hopes of reaching the knockout stage suffered a blow following the defeat that was orchestrated by forward Erling Haaland, who scored twice.
Ismaila Sarr scored both goals for Senegal, including a late strike in stoppage time, but Pape Thiaw’s side could not complete the comeback after falling 3-1 behind.
After Norway had started brightly in the opening exchanges, Senegal grew up after goalkeeper Edouard Mendy had kept them in the game after keeping out efforts from Kristoffer Ajer and Martin Odegaard.
However, a mistake by Koulibaly allowed substitute Marcus Pedersen to take advantage and finish past Mendy. Three minutes later, Odegaard slipped a precise pass through the Senegal defence and Haaland, even while losing his balance, guided his finish into the net.
Sarr responded for Senegal to make it 2-1, but Haaland restored the two-goal lead after finishing off a superb cross from Patrick Berg. Senegal lost keeper Mendy to injury, and Sarr made it 3-2, but their late surge was not enough to give them something from the game.
‘I made a lot of mistakes’
“Top-level football is all about the details. The team that makes the fewest mistakes often wins,” admitted Koulibaly after the game.
“Today, I made a lot of mistakes. It’s a real shame to lose a match like that. We know the level of the World Cup is very high. We can’t afford to…
“We made too many to win this match. It was very difficult chasing the game. But I think the team reacted well mentally. The players did everything they could to snatch a draw.
“Now, we have to believe until the end. We're going to try to play a great match and win against Iraq. No one has a guaranteed place. Everyone is at the team's disposal. The coach has the right to take me off.
“He saw that I wasn’t helping the team. That’s totally normal, it’s part of football. It didn’t go the way I wanted; you have to accept it.”
Senegal must show pride against Iraq
Asked whether Senegal are out of the World Cup, Koulibaly responded: “Everyone needs to get behind this team. They really did some good things today (Tuesday).
“It came down to mistakes. It's a shame. Of course, we still believe in qualifying, otherwise we'd all be going back to Senegal right now. We have to win the last match. We have to believe until the very end.
“I know it's very difficult now, but people need to be behind us. This team has been the African champion, so we can't stop here. We struggled in these two matches. Now we have to show our pride and try to beat Iraq.
“The motivation is still there. It's the World Cup. If you're not motivated to play in it, you don't belong here. I think everyone will be motivated, me first and foremost, on and off the pitch. Senegal deserves to qualify.
“We showed some good and some very bad sides in these two matches. We’ll have to correct that very quickly.”
Speaking after the game, two-goal scorer Sarr said: “We started the match very well, we worked hard. Unfortunately, we conceded two goals in the second half, another very early goal
“We kept working, kept pushing, but well… I'm speechless because we shouldn't have done that. But, that's football. We'll keep working and we have to make our people proud.”
Having lost their opener 3-1 against France, Senegal will now shift focus to their must-win final Group I fixture against Iraq on June 26th at Toronto Stadium.