Kalidou Koulibaly, the captain of Senegal, has urged his younger teammates to step up in their next games against the World Cup hosts Qatar and Ecuador.
Despite beginning their Group A campaign with a 2-0 setback to the Netherlands on Monday, Koulibaly maintained that he expected Senegal could move on to the next round.
“We are still determined because we know that there is something that we can still achieve during this World Cup and we still believe in our chances,” he said.
“Our young players will have to show themselves during the next two games. They have to be on their best form to be able to produce in a big match that we have next against Qatar,”
He mentioned that Cheikhou Kouyaté’s injury during the game affected the team. Koulibaly was also not happy with the team’s inability to take their chances.
“We should have drawn against the Netherlands team. We knew it was going to be decided by the little details. When we lost Cheikhou Kouyaté to injury, it was difficult. Losing players like that in the middle of a match is a bit tough,” the 31-year-old Chelsea defender added.
“However, we tried to play our football. It’s a shame we couldn’t score that first goal because we had chances. Now we have two finals to play. We are going to give everything against Qatar to be able to play a decider against Ecuador,”
“I think that in defence, we were solid. We showed some good things and the 2-0 scoreline did not reflect the game. But at top-level football it’s like that,” he ended.
