England suffered their first defeat under new head coach Thomas Tuchel on Tuesday night, falling 3–1 to Senegal in an international friendly that saw the African champions come from behind to claim a historic win.
Despite taking an early lead through Harry Kane, the Three Lions were outplayed for large spells of the match, allowing Senegal to become the first African side to beat England. The result left fans frustrated, with loud boos ringing out as the players left the pitch.
Kane capitalised on a goalkeeping error from Edouard Mendy to bundle in his record-extending 73rd goal for England in the seventh minute. However, the momentum shifted sharply after Senegal responded with three unanswered goals.
The equaliser came in the 40th minute when Nicolas Jackson chased down a long ball and set up Ismaila Sarr, who surged past Kyle Walker before scoring. Senegal took the lead through an unorthodox strike after Habib Diarra’s deflected pass ricocheted off England goalkeeper Dean Henderson’s leg into the net. The final blow came in stoppage time when Cheikh Sabaly completed a clinical counter-attack, sealing a memorable win for the African champions.
England thought they had drawn level late in the second half when Jude Bellingham converted from a corner in the 84th minute, but the goal was disallowed due to a handball by Levi Colwill in the build-up.
“It’s a learning — tough learning at the moment because we hate to lose,” Tuchel said after the match. “We go into a long break with a bad feeling and with a loss, which is simply not nice and which is not what we wanted.”
The defeat comes a week after England narrowly beat Andorra 1–0, prompting Tuchel to criticise his side’s attitude. Only Kane was retained from that starting lineup, but the changes did little to lift England’s performance.
Kane echoed his manager’s sentiments, telling ITV, “We’re not going to panic. But for sure we know we need to do better… we’ve lost that aggressive nature that we’ve had.”
Speaking to Sky Sports, Kane added, “Coming up to September, we want to start to get it right because once the new season starts the World Cup is soon around the corner. It’s down to us and then the coach to work on areas to improve.”
Elsewhere on Tuesday, the Netherlands thrashed Malta 8–0 in World Cup qualifying, while Finland secured a 2–1 win over Poland in a match delayed by a medical emergency.
Faridah Abdulkadiri
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