Senegal face Belgium in a mouth-watering World Cup Round of 32 showdown at Lumen Field in Seattle on Wednesday, July 1. The Lions of Teranga arrive as underdogs but with genuine belief they can match their best-ever World Cup finish \u2014 the quarter-final appearance achieved in 2002.<\/p>\n
Wednesday\u2019s match is the first-ever meeting between the two nations at any level, adding fascinating tactical unpredictability to an already intriguing knockout tie. Both Rudi Garcia and Pape Thiaw must rely purely on their own squad\u2019s strengths and tournament patterns, without historical head-to-head data to guide them.<\/p>\n
Belgium\u2019s route to the last 32 was unconvincing. Draws against Egypt and Iran left the Red Devils teetering before Leandro Trossard inspired a scintillating 5-1 demolition of New Zealand to secure top spot in Group G. Kevin De Bruyne remains Belgium\u2019s creative heartbeat, while Romelu Lukaku carries six World Cup goals and eight total involvements \u2014 more than any Belgian player since 1966.<\/p>\n
Senegal\u2019s campaign was equally dramatic. Back-to-back defeats to France and Norway left the Lions of Teranga needing a miracle before they delivered spectacularly, thrashing Iraq 5-0 to become the first African nation ever to score five goals in a single World Cup match. They also became the first side in history to qualify for the knockouts after losing their opening two games.<\/p>\n
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However, first-choice goalkeeper Edouard Mendy misses out through a knee sprain, a significant blow against a Belgian attack firing on all cylinders. Sadio Mane and Ismaila Sarr \u2014 with three tournament goals \u2014 remain Senegal\u2019s chief counter-attacking weapons. Opta\u2019s supercomputer gives Belgium a 46.8 percent chance of winning in regulation, making this the tightest fixture of the round.<\/p>\n
The post Lions of Teranga eye historic Last-16 spot against Belgium<\/a> appeared first on KBC Digital<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Senegal face Belgium in a mouth-watering World Cup Round of 32 showdown at Lumen Field in Seattle on Wednesday, July 1. The Lions of Teranga arrive as underdogs but with genuine belief they can match their best-ever World Cup finish \u2014 the quarter-final appearance achieved in 2002. Wednesday\u2019s match is the first-ever meeting between the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145442\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}