Senegal kept its hopes of reaching the knockouts alive on Friday with a comprehensive 5-0 win over Iraq in Toronto.
It was the result the team needed as it moved the Lions of Teranga into third place in Group I; now it must wait for the remaining groups to finish before it knows for certain whether it is one of the top eight third-place teams at the 2026 FIFA Men’s World Cup.
Senegal will leave the game at least knowing it did everything it could today to give itself its best chance to advance.
Here are my thoughts on the game.
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Senegal and Iraq came into this game without a point as both lost to France and Norway. This expanded version of the tournament is more forgiving as eight of 12 third-place teams advance to the round of 32. To have any chance of getting there, however, both teams knew they had to win, likely by a lot of goals, to improve their goal differential tiebreaker.
After just a few minutes, it became clear that Senegal was likely going to win this game. The biggest question was whether it could dramatically improve its goal differential to the point where it was the top third-place finisher with three points.
Senegal got the start it needed when Habib Diarra headed home a corner kick in just the fourth minute.
In the 13th minute, Iraq defender Rebin Sulaka was judged to have brought down former Liverpool forward Sadio Mané, who had a clear path to goal. After a long VAR review, it was determined that Sulaka fouled Mané by pulling his shirt from behind in what was a denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity. By rule, Sulaka was then sent off.
With the game still in its early stages, Senegal was up a goal and up a man in a game it needed to win likely by a large margin. The start could not have gone any better for Senegal, which now seemed to be off to the races.
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Immediately after Iraq gifted Senegal another goal and a 2-0 lead in the 56th minute, Senegal head coach Pape Thiaw decided to make a wave of substitutions to go after the blowout win it would likely need. Pape Gueye, Iliman Ndiaye, Nicolas Jackson, and Pathé Ciss all came into the game to bring more energy to the game.
With these players, Senegal switched to a more aggressive formation as its wingers moved further up the field into the attack.
It paid off in a major way, specifically through Gueye, who scored two fantastic goals with powerful shots. The first was just minutes after coming on in the 59th minute on an assist from Crystal Palace forward Ismaïla Sarr. Then, in the 71st minute, it was Gueye with another goal on an assist from Ndiaye.
From there, the rout was on, and it was completed in the 82nd on a goal from Ndiaye, which was assisted by Gueye, who plays for Villarreal in Spain. That completed the score at 5-0.
The stats from the three 57th-minute substitutes were beyond impressive. They created chance after chance, but most importantly, it was the three goals, two of which were also assisted by substitutes.
Specifically, Gueye was the best player on the field, who also had the biggest impact on the score.
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