Senegal Stuns England with Surprising Away Victory, Increasing Pressure on Thomas Tuchel

England faced a disappointing 3-1 defeat at home against Senegal in a friendly match on Tuesday, intensifying scrutiny on manager Thomas Tuchel as the World Cup approaches in a year’s time.

Ismaila Sarr, Habib Diarra, and Cheikh Sabaly scored to hand England their first-ever loss to an African nation at the City Ground in Nottingham, after Harry Kane initially put the hosts ahead.

Tuchel was highly critical of his team’s lacklustre performance that saw them scrape a 1-0 win against Andorra in World Cup qualifying on Saturday.

The German manager, tasked with breaking England’s lengthy wait for a major tournament victory since 1966, suffered his first defeat in four games since taking the reins.

“We need to see the players perform better under these circumstances against one of the top 20 teams in the world to develop their intelligence on the pitch,” Tuchel remarked.

“We’re not heading to the World Cup next week; we have a year to prepare.”

In response, Tuchel made 10 changes to the squad, keeping only Kane in the starting line-up.

It took just seven minutes for the Bayern Munich striker to continue his impressive scoring streak under Tuchel, tapping in his 73rd international goal after Edouard Mendy could only parry an Anthony Gordon shot.

Dean Henderson was given a rare start in goal as Jordan Pickford took a place on the bench. The Crystal Palace keeper made several notable saves, denying both Sarr and Idrissa Gana Gueye.

However, he was powerless to stop Sarr from capitalising on a lapse from Kyle Walker to connect with Nicolas Jackson’s cross and find the bottom corner.

England had boasted an unbeaten record against African teams in 21 past matches but found themselves up against a Senegal side that had lost only once from open play since their defeat to England at the 2022 World Cup.

“That was not good enough. We had some moments, but neither with nor without the ball were we in sync—we’re struggling to find the right rhythm,” lamented Kane.

“We’ve lost the aggressive edge that we once had.”

Diarra found himself with plenty of space to exploit the England defence and slipped the ball through Henderson’s legs to give Senegal the lead shortly after the hour mark.

Mendy redeemed himself following his earlier error with noteworthy stops to thwart Bukayo Saka and Morgan Gibbs-White from equalising.

England believed they had equalised late in the match when Jude Bellingham scored from a corner, but the goal was disallowed due to a handball by Levi Colwill before the ball reached Bellingham.

Senegal took full advantage of this let-off, wrapping up a historic win in stoppage time when Sabaly completed a slick counter-attack.

The home crowd expressed their frustration with boos as Tuchel was left with much to reflect on before England’s next fixture in September.