The Russia World Cup 2018 that kicked off four days ago has pulled surprises in the opening fixtures, with the biggest casualty being Germany versus Mexico.
African teams too have found the going rather tough, with the first three representatives losing their opening group matches.
In the first match, Egypt lost to Uruguay in a match that could have gone either way, with the absence of Mohamed Salah a key talking point.
Morocco lost their match against Iran on the second day of the tournament, conceding a 90th minute own goal to start on a losing note.
The other African team, Nigeria, was expected to fly the African flag high, but found the going rather tough against Croatia, conceding an own goal and a Luka Modric penalty sinking the West African side.
One thing that stood out from the three defeats is the manner in which the teams lost. African teams have a weakness that the European teams are exploiting.
Analysts have talked about the teams’ concentration through matches, and it was evident in the first three matches.
Egypt and Morocco played well but were undone in the dying minutes of the match after losing concentration. The two north African teams conceded in the last minute of normal time, in matched they could have easily collected a point.
In their match against Croatia, Nigeria started brightly but faded away as the match wore on, and fatigue was evident as the midfield was overran by Madrid’s Modric and Barcelona’s Ractic.
The other two African teams; Tunisia and Senegal will be taking to the field, with Tunisia playing England today, Monday.
If the teams want to create something substantial from the games, they need to ensure their concentration is topnotch.
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