Soccer
Thomas Tuchel’s perfect start as England head coach came to an end after a disappointing 3-1 defeat to Senegal at the City Ground in Nottingham.
Despite taking the lead through Harry Kane early on, goals from Ismaila Sarr, Habib Diarra, and Cheikh Sabaly completed a comeback victory for the visitors as England lost to African opposition for the first time.
Senegal had the first big chance of the game through Nicolas Jackson after five minutes, but Dean Henderson made a smart save to deny the striker.
Kane put the hosts ahead two minutes later as he was quickest to react when Edouard Mendy parried Anthony Gordon’s shot.
Gordon had a great chance to double England’s lead just before the half-hour mark but he missed the target from close range.
Tuchel’s side were left to rue that miss when Sarr found the bottom-left corner after racing onto Jackson’s centre after the Chelsea striker caught Kyle Walker napping.
6 – Senegal had six shots on target in the first half; the most England have faced in the opening half of a game since June 2013 v Brazil at the Maracanã (8). Fragility. pic.twitter.com/dcdnjtgujL
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) June 10, 2025
Walker was beaten again early in the second half by El Malick Diouf, whose brilliant cross was turned over the bar by Diarra.
However, Diarra did find the back of the net in the 62nd minute after he got on the end of a long ball from Kalidou Koulibaly and finished from a tight angle.
England almost replied immediately, but Mendy made two great saves to deny Morgan Gibbs-White and then Bukayo Saka.
Substitute Jude Bellingham thought he scored an equaliser with six minutes to go before it was disallowed for a handball in the build-up by Levi Colwill following a VAR review.
Sabaly finished the game off in the third minute of additional time, finishing a quick counter-attack to compound a miserable evening for the Three Lions.
Data Debrief: Food for thought for Tuchel
It was a dismal evening for England, though there were some positive notes to come from the outing.
Kane has scored in all four of England’s games under Tuchel; the first time ever that a player has netted in each of a manager’s first four matches in charge of the Three Lions.
He has netted 48 goals in 49 appearances under Tuchel (44 at Bayern Munich and four for England), with this his best goals per game ratio (0.98) under any manager in his entire career.
England suffered their first ever defeat against an African opponent, in what was their 22nd such match (previously W15 D6). This was also the first time they had conceded three-plus goals in a game against an African side.
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