Senegal’s World Cup dream over after Thailand draw

A disappointing Fifa Women’s World Cup™ Playoff Tournament ended in a creditable and entertaining draw for Thailand and Senegal.

These sides, who had seen their hopes of reaching Australia & New Zealand 2023 dashed by defeats to Cameroon and Haiti respectively, traded goals either side of halftime in an incident-laden encounter.

This match provided a stark and intriguing clash of styles, with the Asians’ neat, technical interplay matched against the speed and athleticism of their African opponents.

Initially, Thailand enjoyed the upper hand, and it was no more than they deserved when Janista Jinantuya fired them into a 17th-minute lead.

Much of the credit for the goal belonged to Jiraporn Mongkoldee, who closed down Senegal’s defence, snatched possession and crossed perfectly for her attacking colleague to direct home an excellent first-time left-foot finish.

Les Lionnes responded well to that early setback, though, and created the better of the chances as the match wore on. Nguenar Ndiaye even rattled the crossbar in first-half stoppage time as Senegal tightened their grip on proceedings.

An equaliser looked to be inevitable and, sure enough, one arrived from the penalty spot on 67 minutes, with Awa Ndeye Diakhate wrong-footing the keeper after a foul by Thailand skipper Phonphirun Philawan.

Senegal will feel unfortunate not to have gone on to win, with the luckless Ndiaye hitting the bar once again as the clock ticked down.

But neither side could find a winner and both will now return home to begin plotting a path to the next Women's World Cup in 2027.

STATS

1 - This was the first-ever match against an Asian nation for Senegal’s women’s national team.

1 - Thailand have just one win from their last five matches.

24 - Senegal registered 24 attempts on goal to the Thais' 10.

QUOTES

"I enjoyed that match. It was fun to play in. Senegal were tough opponents and we had a lot of youngsters in the team, but we helped each other to give quite a good performance. Now we must start preparing for the next World Cup. We're already thinking about that - about going back home, working hard and improving the things that we will need to qualify next time."

- Phonphirun Philawan, Thailand defender and Player of the Match

"We played well but we conceded a goal due to a defensive mistake. That's football. We really wanted to win - that was our goal. This was the first time we had played in a tournament like this and we've learned a lot. We'll keep on working to get better."

- Ndeye Awa Diakhate, Senegal forward