Africa’s Champion Senegal failed to convert its chances to lose a pretty even match with Netherlands 0-2 on Monday.

Senegal started off on a fast pace, using the width of the pitch to good effect and dominated Netherlands for the first 15 minutes. Netherlands took time to settle and had the best chance to score in the first half.

With star striker Sadio Mane unavailable, Senegal had 15 shots of which only 4 were on target but failed to convert any of them.

Andries Noppert, the 6’8” tall Netherlands goalkeeper, had a stellar performance and made at least two critical saves to deny Senegal.

A colossal performance from this man today ❌

On his international debut, too! 👏 pic.twitter.com/DAEZnMIQ81

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) November 21, 2022

Netherlands dominated the last quarter of play where they scored two goals.

Cody Gakpo, Dutch Footballer of the year scored on world cup debut on the 84th minute through a header.

Memphis Depay, Netherlands’ star forward, who came in as a substitute forced a save from Senegal’s Goalkeeper Mendy, but it rebounded to Davy Klassen who scored the Netherland’s second goal towards the end of regulation time.

Senegal’s Keeper Edouard Mendy had a tough day, and on better days, both the goals scored by Netherlands might have been prevented.

Earlier in the opening match of FIFA World Cup 2022 on Sunday, Ecuador’s talismanic Captain Enner Valencia scored a brace as Equador defeated Qatar by 2-0.

Enner scored as early as the 3rd minute of the match but that goal was disallowed due to an offside. The disallowed goal triggered wide resentment on social media.

Enner held his concentration and around the 16th minute, he broke off on a bisecting pass to beat Qatar’s goalkeeper Saab Al Sheeb on a one-on-one. Goalkeeper Saab Al Sheeb, who had a horrible first half, fouled Enner, giving a penalty which was coolly converted.

In the 31st minute, Enner converted an excellent pass to score his second goal by heading Ecuador’s second goal.

We’re just getting started…#Qatar2022 | #FIFAWorldCup pic.twitter.com/TeuB1C4fuK

— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) November 20, 2022

It meant that the host country lost the opening match of the world cup for the first time in history.

While the ball possession pretty even at 47% Qatar and 53% Ecuador, Qatar did not have any shot on target while Ecuador converted two goals from three shots on target.

Qatar’s goalkeeper came in for sharp criticism with some tabloids calling him the worst goalkeeper. Qatar’s decision to pull out its players from competition six months before the tournament so as to prepare them for the World Cup also came in for criticism with experts saying that it may have proven a drawback due to lack of competitive time.

With the defeat, Qatar’s hopes of progressing to the next round seems improbable with matches against Iran and Netherlands remaining in the group league round.