Senegal’s discipline and faith in themselves as a new generation of African talent were key to their 2-1 win over Poland on Tuesday, said coach Aliou Cisse, refusing to accept the result was all down to errors by the group H seeds.
Neither side’s goalkeeper was troubled for much of the 90 minutes but an own goal and a stray back pass handed all the advantage to Senegal, playing in their first World Cup in 16 years, before the Poles secured a late consolation.
“Senegal won due to discipline,” said Cisse, who captained the side which famously beat defending champions France in their first ever World Cup match in 2002. “You saw a Senegal team very solid, very compact. We were able to put them under pressure.
“Every time they made a mistake we were able to find the action we needed and get back at them. We managed really well to get them out of their comfort zone in the first half.”