Sunday Oliseh Explains Why England Escaped Losing to African Teams for Long Time Before Senegal Loss
Former Super Eagles head coach Sunday Oliseh has claimed that England had not yet lost to an African side until last night because of the UEFA Nations League.
“The introduction of the European Nations League eliminated almost all possible international friendly matches windows,” he wrote on his X page.
“That is, in my opinion, the only reason Teams like England do not get beaten often by African teams. The gap is no longer that significant, unlike in the 80s. Africa has no reason to fear any team in the world anymore!!”
Before yesterday’s loss, England have faced an African team 21 times, won 15 and drawn six. The UEFA Nations League was launched in 2018, and since then before yesterday, they had only played an African team thrice.
They faced Nigeria in 2018 and won 2-1 in an international friendly at Wembley Stadium, beat Tunisia in the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup group stage, before beating Senegal 3-0 in the Round of 16.
Since the inception of the UEFA Nations League, excluding the cancelled March 2020 FIFA window, England have played 19 friendly games across 10 windows, only one of which has been against an African team, which they won against Nigeria.
Meaning that in competitive and friendly games before the Nations League was launched, they faced an African team 18 times, they drew five and won 13 times.
Source: Getty Images
Former Chelsea manager Tuchel admitted that he was disappointed and could not sleep after his team suffered a historic loss against Senegal.
“I'm not very good, I didn't sleep well after last night. I'm disappointed, it was a short night, and we hate to lose. I was not fully happy with the performance overall. The way we lost, losing at home, didn't make me sleep well,” he said.
The Three Lions will resume for the 2026 FIFA World Cup qualifier in September, with games against Andorra and Serbia.
Legit.ng reported that Tuchel slammed England players for their performance against Andorra despite winning 1-0 in the World Cup qualifier match.
The German manager claimed his team struggled against lesser opposition and were caught not putting in the right energy in the match, and must change going forward.
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Source: Legit.ng
