{"id":37965,"date":"2026-06-24T19:13:11","date_gmt":"2026-06-24T17:13:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=37965"},"modified":"2026-06-24T21:59:58","modified_gmt":"2026-06-24T19:59:58","slug":"senegal-iraq-meet-in-last-chance-saloon","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/senegal-iraq-meet-in-last-chance-saloon\/","title":{"rendered":"Senegal, Iraq meet in last-chance saloon"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>Senegal were touted as a team with potential to \u200cgo far at the World Cup, but successive defeats have them teetering on the brink of elimination and they need a comprehensive win over Iraq on Friday.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>For Iraq, it is a similar predicament as they have also lost \u200btheir opening two Group I games to France and Norway, who have taken the top two \u200bplaces and advanced to the last 32.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div>Iraq and Senegal are scrambling to progress as \u2060one of the eight best third-placed teams across the 12 groups, but even if there \u200bis a winner when the two sides meet at the Toronto Stadium, they would likely have \u200ban anxious wait until the group stage concludes late on Saturday before knowing whether their three-point haul is enough to reach the knockout stage.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">While Iraq were always expected to struggle against the two European sides in the \u200bgroup, Senegal had high hopes of making a strong early statement and laying down their credentials.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">They had famously upset then holders France in the opening game of the 2002 World Cup and were \u200clooking \u2060to repeat those heroics in New York in their first game of this year&#8217;s finals, but took a massive blow to their confidence as the French eased to a 3-1 win.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Mistakes cost them dearly against Norway on Monday as they lost 3-2, gifting Erling Haaland opportunities he needed no second \u200binvitation to snap up.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">Senegal, whose \u200bfirst-choice goalkeeper Edouard \u2060Mendy was injured against Norway and will not play against Iraq, have looked far removed from the team who won the Africa Cup of Nations \u200bin January (a title they have since been stripped of) amid reports of \u200bwrangling over \u2060money. But coach Pape Bouna Thiaw said before the Norway game that all administrative matters had been settled.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">After losing on Monday, Thiaw was clear that he felt their tournament was not yet over \u2060and that \u200bthey could beat Iraq, whose coach Graham Arnold believes the \u200bsame for his side.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">\u201cWith eight third-placed teams going through, we&#8217;ve still got a chance,&#8221; Arnold said after his team lost \u200b3-0 to France in Philadelphia on Monday.<\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div dir=\"ltr\">&#8211;Reuters&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21607,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-37965","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Iraq and Senegal are scrambling to progress as \u2060one of the eight best third-placed teams across the 12 groups.","published_date":"","news_description":"Iraq and Senegal are scrambling to progress as \u2060one of the eight best third-placed teams across the 12 groups.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37965","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37965\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37967,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/37965\/revisions\/37967"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37965"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=37965"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}