Game 2: Poland 1 -2 Senegal
This one was harder for me to follow, B wasn’t watching it and I was working, although I did try to keep an eye on the first half text reports on the BBC site.
From what I could make out Senegal were having most of the play and on 37 minutes they took the lead when a shot from Everton's Idrissa Gueye took a huge deflection off Thiago Cionek to give them a deserved lead.
I was in the car ten minutes into the second half and so was able to listen to 5Live’s commentary. I remember the furore when Jacquie Oatley became the first female commentator on Match Of The Day; it was a pathetic reaction. So it was good to hear Vicki Sparks describe this game with a commentary that put many of her male colleagues to shame; there was humour, but nothing like the cringeworthy Mark Lawrenson, there was some background, but none of the rambling of Jonathan Pearce and absolutely none of the demented feckwittery of Glenn Hoddle. Co-commentator Terry Butcher just wanted the ball put in the box for the big guy!
There was a bit of controversy about Senegal’s second goal. M'Baye Niang had been off the pitch getting treatment and the ref waved him back on as Grzegorz Krychowiak played a crazy back pass from inside the Senegal half. To be fair, when he played it there were no Senegal players in the Polish half, but Niang ran on in the Polish half and intercepted the backless. Wojciech Szczesny sprinted off his line as our own Jan Bednarek (who’d come on as a half time replacement for Jakub Blaszczykowski) hesitated and looked confused to see the Senegal player suddenly appear in front of him, it put him on the back foot and allowed Niang to beat him to the ball touch it past Szczesny and roll it into an empty net.
Poland had hardly created anything, with striker Robert Lewandowski not really getting a touch. 5Live were pretty scathing of the way Poland were playing.
I was home to see the last ten minutes on the TV, just in time to see Poland pull one back. Grzegorz Krychowiak did well to head home a free-kick at the far post. That lifted Poland briefly and they went for the equaliser, but the Senegal keeper, N’Diaye, plucked one cross out of the air and made a routine save as Poland forced a couple of late corners. However, Senegal finished the game by taking back possession of the ball and keeping it, playing little passes between themselves in the Polish half until the final whistle went.
The last thing I saw before turning the TV off was Sadio Mané sitting on the pitch at with a beaming smile on his face.
From what I could make out Senegal were having most of the play and on 37 minutes they took the lead when a shot from Everton's Idrissa Gueye took a huge deflection off Thiago Cionek to give them a deserved lead.
I was in the car ten minutes into the second half and so was able to listen to 5Live’s commentary. I remember the furore when Jacquie Oatley became the first female commentator on Match Of The Day; it was a pathetic reaction. So it was good to hear Vicki Sparks describe this game with a commentary that put many of her male colleagues to shame; there was humour, but nothing like the cringeworthy Mark Lawrenson, there was some background, but none of the rambling of Jonathan Pearce and absolutely none of the demented feckwittery of Glenn Hoddle. Co-commentator Terry Butcher just wanted the ball put in the box for the big guy!
There was a bit of controversy about Senegal’s second goal. M'Baye Niang had been off the pitch getting treatment and the ref waved him back on as Grzegorz Krychowiak played a crazy back pass from inside the Senegal half. To be fair, when he played it there were no Senegal players in the Polish half, but Niang ran on in the Polish half and intercepted the backless. Wojciech Szczesny sprinted off his line as our own Jan Bednarek (who’d come on as a half time replacement for Jakub Blaszczykowski) hesitated and looked confused to see the Senegal player suddenly appear in front of him, it put him on the back foot and allowed Niang to beat him to the ball touch it past Szczesny and roll it into an empty net.
Poland had hardly created anything, with striker Robert Lewandowski not really getting a touch. 5Live were pretty scathing of the way Poland were playing.
I was home to see the last ten minutes on the TV, just in time to see Poland pull one back. Grzegorz Krychowiak did well to head home a free-kick at the far post. That lifted Poland briefly and they went for the equaliser, but the Senegal keeper, N’Diaye, plucked one cross out of the air and made a routine save as Poland forced a couple of late corners. However, Senegal finished the game by taking back possession of the ball and keeping it, playing little passes between themselves in the Polish half until the final whistle went.
The last thing I saw before turning the TV off was Sadio Mané sitting on the pitch at with a beaming smile on his face.
