Defeated 5-1 by Japan in the semifinals of the Beach Soccer World Cup, Senegal said goodbye to their dreams of a final. The Lions can, however, comfort themselves with a match for third place on Sunday against Switzerland, while the Japanese face Russia.
After their historic quarter-final victory over Brazil, the tournament’s most successful team, the wildest hopes were allowed for the Teranga Lions. Their dreams of the final were shattered by the realism of the Japanese who could handle this meeting perfectly. This is perhaps what the Senegalese lacked the most, certainly a little overwhelmed by the challenge in the first semi-final of their history at the World Cup.
In any case, the game will have started with an observation sequence between the two teams since the first third time ended with a goalless draw. It was after the first break that Japan worked twice by opening the hostilities with a first goal from Takuya Akagama in the 15th minute.
While the second third ended with a score of 1-0, the hope remained for Oumar Sylla’s men, even more so when less than a minute after returning from the locker room, Captain Babacar equalized for the Lions. But the thinning was only short-lived, as a minute later Takaaki Oba scored the 2-1 goal before Masanori Okuyamane came to weigh down the score in the 27th.
Goals metThe memory of the comeback against Brazil two days earlier may give hope that a new scenario will recover but this time the Senegalese have not managed to repeat the feat. Takuya Akaguma even scored his team’s fourth goal in the 29th, before scoring a hat-trick a few minutes later. Pape Mar Boye’s goal in the meantime will not change anything at the end of the match.
? Senegal is hara-kiri! ??
⚔ The lion falls with his arms in his hand, beaten by Japan in the semifinals of #BeachSoccerWC 2021 ?
?The Blue Samurai book time with RFU in the final ? pic.twitter.com/EtxeqhwDzM
– FIFA.com (FR) ⚽ (@fifacom_fr) August 28, 2021 Despite the disappointment, the Teranga Lions still reached their goal by reaching the semifinals of the competition. We will now need to mobilize the troops again to get third place against Switzerland on Sunday. At the same time, the Japanese will face Russia in the first final of their history, which will try to take its third world title at the Luzhniki Beach Soccer Arena in front of its home crowd.
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