Koulibaly: Senegal want to make more history

by Staff Reporter

Wednesday Jun 11, 2025. 11:00

Senegal captain Kalidou Koulibaly hailed their historic 3-1 win against England on Tuesday as a “fantastic night” as the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations champions pulled off a remarkable feat.

The Three Lions hadn’t lost to an African team in 21 attempts prior to the friendly at the City Ground and they got off to a flying start when Harry Kane broke the deadlock after just seven minutes.

However, the Lions of Teranga hit back through Ismaila Sarr (40′) before half-time and Habib Diarra put them ahead on 62 minutes, with Cheikh Sabaly (90+3′) sealing the comeback win in stoppage time.

Pape Thiaw’s side are now unbeaten in their last 14 matches since losing to Ivory Coast on penalties in the round of 16 at the 2023 edition of AFCON on 29 January 2024.

“Fantastic night. We knew we could do something in this game,” Koulibaly told BBC Radio 5 Live. “It was a tough game, but we showed our personality and showed we can play at this level.

“It is fantastic. We are not used to making history and we made it when we won AFCON, and we made it tonight. We want to continue writing the story of Senegal. We wanted to show we have a good nation.”

Tunisia and Cameroon had previously come close to beating England in 1990, with Steve Bull scoring a last-minute equaliser to deny the Eagles of Carthage a 1-0 victory in a friendly ahead of Italia ’90, where the Indomitable Lions almost shocked the Three Lions in the quarter-finals before going down 3-2 after extra-time.