The Senegal coach admires Mane's leadership

The Senegal national team made a magical return to the World Cup. This victory not only became the biggest in the history of the performances of African national teams at the World Cup, but also, thanks to favorable results in other groups, guaranteed the Senegalese a place in the 1/16 finals. After defeats by France and Norway at the start of the tournament, the head coach of Senegal, Pape Thiau, resorted to decisive steps. He left experienced centre-back Kalidou Koulibaly on the bench as well However, the main star and talisman of the team - 34-year-old Sadio Mane - remained on the field and fully justified the trust, playing a decisive role in the victory. "I could almost write a book about this player. He does extraordinary things, he is there for the group, he is influential, he is the technical leader of this team. He really does extraordinary things and also helps us defensively. Sadio really is an example for all of African and world football," enthused Tiaw after the match. The mentor also noted Mane's human qualities and his patriotism: "He has always shown that he is highly valued, even outside of Senegal. Every day with him you see what kind of person he is and how devoted he is to this team. He gives everything for the flag of Senegal." In the absence of Nicholas Jackson, Mane took a more central position in attack. This allowed Ismail Jacobs to operate more effectively on the wing, while Sadio himself finished the game as Senegal's most advanced player. Although he didn't score a goal or assist in that game, he did create four scoring chances, the most of any player on the field. The turning point was the 13th minute of the meeting. Mane forced Iraqi defender Rabin Sulaka to foul, for which he received a red card. Remaining in the minority, Iraq could not hold back the onslaught of Africans. This convincing victory secured Senegal three points with a final goal difference of +2. Results in the other groups later went in the West Africans' favor: with Iran finishing third in their group and Uruguay losing to Spain, the third-placed teams in Groups G and H could no longer overtake Senegal in the overall standings. Given that South Korea and Scotland also have the worse goal difference, Pape Thiau's side have officially booked their place in the play-offs. "I want to congratulate my team because we played the match we had. It was important for us to win and we hoped for it. To score five goals is also something great, even though we played against an Iraqi team that gave us problems in the first half," concluded the head coach.