England experienced a surprising 3-1 defeat at the hands of Senegal in a friendly match held at the City Ground on Tuesday. The visiting team decisively outplayed the home side, netting three well-executed goals and inflicting new manager Thomas Tuchel’s first loss. It proved to be a challenging night for the hosts, who struggled to maintain their momentum and were met with jeers from their fans after the final whistle.
Senegal made history by becoming the first African team to defeat England in 22 matches, thanks to goals from Ismaila Sarr, Habib Diarra, and Cheikh Sabaly. This victory extended Senegal’s unbeaten run to 24 games. In contrast, England’s loss – which included a disallowed late goal by Jude Bellingham due to a handball during the build-up – marked their first defeat in four games under new manager Thomas Tuchel.
“Not good enough,” captain Harry Kane told ITV. “We had moments, but with and without the ball things aren’t clicking, we’re not finding the right tempo. We’ve lost that aggressive nature that we had.”
England, making 10 changes from their lackluster 1-0 World Cup qualifying win over Andorra on Saturday, initially took the lead when Kane scored in the seventh minute. This came after Senegal goalkeeper Edouard Mendy saved Anthony Gordon’s shot but inadvertently spilled the ball into the striker’s path.
The hosts conceded their first goal under Tuchel when Sarr caught Kyle Walker off guard, tapping in Nicolas Jackson’s cross in the 40th minute. The visitors doubled their lead in the 62nd minute when Diarra latched onto a long ball and then fired it through goalkeeper Dean Henderson’s legs. Sabaly sealed the victory with a strike deep into stoppage time, which elicited boos from the frustrated England supporters after the final whistle.
“We’re not going to panic but we know we need to be better,” Kane said. “New ideas, there’s new players coming into the team that don’t have experience at international level. It’s a mixture of things but no excuses. We need to find it quick, the World Cup is going to come around really fast so every camp is really important right now.”
Senegal peppered Henderson with nine shots on target compared to England’s four, including an early header from Sarr that the goalkeeper managed to push wide of the post. Gordon squandered a golden opportunity to give England a two-goal lead in the first half, mis-hitting Walker’s close-range cross. Mendy made a crucial late save, denying England what would have been an equalizer from Bukayo Saka, just before Senegal added their third goal.
“Disappointing result, not sure if maybe didn’t deserve a little bit more result-wise,” Tuchel commented. “But felt again a bit frozen, not active enough for a long time of the match. We conceded the first two goals, very easy goals, that we needed to defend better. The reaction was good after we were down, suddenly more active, more free, more fluid, more aggressive towards the opponent’s goals. We had then big chances to equalize.”
