As the African champions attempt to move over the injury to Sadio Mane, former Tottenham attacker Vincent Janssen makes his World Cup debut for the Netherlands against Senegal on Monday.
Before making a comeback for the Netherlands’ UEFA Nations League campaign in June, Janssen, who is currently playing for Royal Antwerp in Belgium, had not played for his nation in nearly five years.
He joins an assault that also includes PSV Eindhoven’s Cody Gakpo and Ajax’s Steven Bergwijn as the Netherlands, the three-time runners-up, return to the World Cup stage after failing to qualify in 2018. Memphis Depay is sidelined, therefore he joins the attack.
Depay scored 12 goals during the qualifying round, but the Barcelona forward hasn’t played since suffering an injury in September.
Huge Heerenveen shot-blocker Andries Noppert also made his goaltending debut under coach Louis van Gaal.
On the day of the competition, Mane’s forced withdrawal from the team due to a leg injury sustained while playing for Bayern Munich earlier in the month delivered Senegal a severe blow.
Krepin Diatta of Monaco will start in his spot for the Group A match at the Al Thumama Stadium in Doha.
Senegal, who were crowned African champions for the first time earlier this year, was only denied a spot in the round of 16 in 2018 because they had a worse fair-play record than Japan.
On Monday, Group A rivals Ecuador and Qatar played each other in the tournament’s opening match with the South American side beating the hosts 2-0.
Starting line-ups:
Senegal (4-3-3)
Edouard Mendy; Youssouf Sabaly, Kalidou Koulibaly (capt), Pape Abou Cisse, Abdou Diallo; Idrissa Gana Gueye, Nampalys Mendy, Cheikhou Kouyate; Krepin Diatta, Boulaye Dia, Ismaila Sarr
Coach: Aliou Cisse (SEN)
Netherlands (3-4-1-2)
Andries Noppert; Matthijs de Ligt, Virgil van Dijk (capt), Nathan Ake; Denzel Dumfries, Steven Berghuis, Frenkie de Jong, Daley Blind; Cody Gakpo; Steven Bergwijn, Vincent Janssen
Coach: Louis van Gaal (NED)
Referee: Wilton Sampaio (BRA)
