On November 21, Africa's highest-ranked team, Senegal, will look to challenge the Netherlands in the opening game. After a string of promising recent performances, they will head into their World Cup fixture high on faith.
While the Netherlands enters its first World Cup since 2014 in terrific form, Senegal has a mighty defensive unit. Since 2021, when Louis van Gaal came out of retirement and was hired as manager for the third time, the Dutch have gone 15 games without a defeat.
Football fans are excited to enjoy the match between The Flying Dutchmen and the Lions of Teranga. Here's what you should know before watching their games on Monday afternoon.
Current FIFA world ranking: 8
World Cup titles: 0
World Cup appearances: 10
How they qualified: Qualified automatically from UEFA (Won Group G)
Coach: Louis van Gaal
Captain: Virgil Vandaik
Key players: Memphis Depay, Frenkie de Jong, Virgil van Dijk
Current FIFA world ranking: 18
World Cup titles: 0
World Cup appearances: 2
How they qualified: By beating Egypt in the CAF playoff
Coach: Aliou Cisse
Captain: Kalidou Koulibaly
Key players: Edouard Mendy, Kalidou Koulibaly, Sadio Mane
Kick-off Time: 16:00 GMT / 11:00 ET / 08:00 PT
Date: Monday, November 21
Stadium: Al Thumama Stadium
Location: Doha, Qatar
Timber, Van Dijk, Frimpong, F. De Jong, Klaassen; Gakpo, Bergwijn, Pasveer, Blind, Koopmeiners, Ake
E Mendy; Sabaly, Ballo-Toure; PM Sarr, I Gueye, I Sarr, Dia, Diatta, Cisse, N Mendy, Koulibaly
Netherlands and Senegal are currently in conflict for the first time in an international game. In 2022, the Netherlands has yet to have a defeat. Since losing 2-0 to the Czech Republic in the round of 16 of Euro 2020, they have gone undefeated in 15 matches.
On the other side, the lions of Terenga have won four and drawn one of their past five games without losing any of them. But the Senegal team is starting the FIFA World Cup 2022 without star player Sadio Mane. So it will be challenging for them to score goals.
In the same way, the Dutch team will also miss their crucial player Memphis Depay. So, the match will be pretty interesting. Concluding it, there is a 17% chance of the Senegal team winning the game, while the Netherlands has a 57% probability. And there is a 26% probability of the match ending with a draw.
Here are the betting odds for Senegal vs. Netherlands
The game ended with a score of 2-0 as the Dutchman won the game in the last minutes. Cody Gakpo scored a stunning goal in the eight-four minute to take the lead in the game. In the extra time, Klaassen doubled the lead and won the game. The Netherlands will be playing against Ecuador on November 25, Friday and will look to seal the spot for the Round of Sixteen.