Doha-Sana
The first group of the first round of the World Cup finals in Qatar will complete its matches today, with the Senegal and the Netherlands national team meeting at Al-Thumama Stadium, while the second group competitions will start in this role with the matches between England and Iran at Khalifa Stadium, and the United States of America with Wales at Ahmed Bin Ali Stadium.
Senegal is playing its match with its Dutch rival in the absence of its star Sadio Mane, the second best player in the Golden Ball award, who was officially confirmed five days before the start of the World Cup due to the injury he suffered during Bayern's match with Hertha Berlin in the German League.
Senegal joined the teams that qualified for the World Cup through the African supplement by beating Egypt on penalties, dreaming of repeating the achievement of 2002 when they reached the quarter-finals.
The situation of the Dutch national team, the runner-up of the world champion three times, does not seem better than its Senegalese counterpart, as it begins its participation in ranks burdened with injuries, as the Dutch national team’s top scorer Depay suffers from a problem in his knee tendons since his participation with the national team last September, and the Netherlands lost the efforts of the Italian player Denzel Damfris, As a result of his knee injury while participating with his club against Atalanta in the Italian League, eight days before the expected confrontation against Senegal.
The first group opened its matches yesterday with the loss of the Qatar national team to the Ecuadorian national team, with two goals without a response, at Al-Bayt Stadium.
In Group Two, England will meet Iran, and the England national team, led by coach Gareth Southgate, will enter today's match without the duo Kyle Walker and James Madison.
The Iranian national team includes a number of professional players in the most prominent league competitions in Europe, including Mehdi Taremi of Porto, Portugal, and Sardar Azmoun, player of Bayer Leverkusen.
In the second match in this group, the US national team will face Wales, after it missed the last edition of the World Cup that was held in Russia 2018, after participating in the tournament finals 7 times in a row, and had decided its qualification for the World Cup Qatar by achieving third place in the North and Central American qualifiers. And the Caribbean CONCACAF, and the Wales national team aspires to make a good start and go far in the current version of the World Cup and return to it for the first time since 1958, which witnessed its only previous participation in the World Cup, and it reached the quarter-finals.
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