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Henderson, Kane, Saka score in England knockout win over Senegal

Al Khor, Qatar, Dec 4 (EFE).- England blanked Senegal 3-0 on Sunday and moved into the Qatar 2022 World Cup quarterfinals, where they will next go up against France, who downed Poland 3-1 earlier in the day.

The English struggled to find their groove during the first half hour of play before 66,000 spectators at Al Bayt Stadium in Al Khor, Qatar, but finally Jordan Henderson was handed an excellent set-up by Jude Bellingham for the 1-0 in the 38th minute and then Harry Kane scored in first half stoppage time to put the team up by two.

After play resumed, it was Bukayo Saka notching the third tally of the evening and, in effect, putting the match beyond reach of the Senegalese, who did manage to get several early chances, swiping at least a couple of erratic forward passes from Harry Maguire and John Stones.

On the first occasion, Maguire’s pass was intercepted and sent to Ismaila Sarr, who fired a close-range shot that could have changed the team’s fortunes but went over the net. And then Dia took advantage of a mistake by Saka, firing one that goaltender Jordan Pickford blocked with an outflung arm, but sending the English into conniptions, although no tally resulted for the African squad.

Admittedly, the Senegalese were playing without their star, Sadio Mane, who was removed from the play list even before the first match due to injury.

When Henderson scored, the English team settled down, however, with team captain Harry Kane drawing off the Senegalese for Bellingham to send it from the box over to Henderson for the score.

Shortly thereafter, it was Bellingham again who grabbed the ball and drove hard through his rivals’ midfield defense, sending the ball to Phil Foden, who knocked it to Kane just before the first-half whistle for a powerful blast past Senegal netminder Edouard Mendy for the 2-0.

Although the English squad had barely squeaked out of the first half with two goals, the second half was a different story as they clearly dominated play and Senegal, in effect, collapsed.

Phil Foden, on his second assist, fired a crossing shot to Saka in the 57th minute, whereupon he sent one over the diving Mendy for his third tally of this year’s World Cup, tying him with Marcus Rashford in the English scoring department The win made Gareth Southgate’s English squad – so far the top scoring team – the only undefeated squad besides Morocco at this year’s World Cup.

With the win, Senegal will head for home while the English – who made it to the semifinals at the Russia 2018 World Cup – will go up against defending champions France in the quarterfinals in what is sure to be highly anticipated match.

Lineups:

England: Pickford; Walker, Stones (Dier, m.76), Maguire, Shaw; Rice, Henderson (Phillips, m.82), Bellingham (Mount, m.76); Saka (Rashford, m.65), Foden (Grealish, m.65) and Kane.

Senegal: E. Mendy; Sabaly, Koulibaly, Diallo, Jakobs (Ballo-Touré, m.84); Sarr, Mendy, Ciss (Gueye, m.46), Diatta (Sarr, m.46); Ndiaye (Dieng, m.46) and Dia (Diedhiou, m.72).

EFE smg/bp

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