Could an African team win the World Cup? Why not, says Senegal boss Cisse
"Just look at how the World Cup is unfolding, with a lot of surprises," Cisse said.
According to Senegal's head coach Aliou Cisse, African teams have a legitimate shot at winning the World Cup.
On Friday, Senegal got off to a winning start in Group A with a 3-1 victory over Qatar.
The team that won the Africa Cup of Nations was unable to capitalise on several scoring opportunities in their opening loss to the Netherlands because of the absence of Sadio Mane.
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Cisse, however, thinks his team and the other African sides (Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, and Tunisia) competing in the Middle East should believe they can challenge the top nations.
Cisse offered as examples the unexpected victories of Japan and Saudi Arabia over Germany and Argentina.
"Just look at how the World Cup is unfolding, with a lot of surprises," Cisse said.
"We've seen David bring down Goliath. Japan beat Germany, Saudi Arabia beat Argentina – anything is possible.
"All teams competing are worthy of being here. It's not like 30 years ago where the big fish were completely neutralising the smaller teams.
"I think it will be a World Cup full of surprises. Yes, an African country can win the World Cup, and I hope that country is Senegal!"
With their win over Qatar, Senegal became the first African side to beat the host nation at a World Cup; all of the previous four instances of an African side facing the hosts had seen them lose by an aggregate 12-2 score.
Cisse had called on his forwards to improve after the defeat to the Dutch. Boulaye Dia, Famara Diedhiou and Bamba Dieng answered their coach's call.
"Yes, we understood the message loud and clear," said Dia, when asked by Stats Perform if he felt the Senegal forwards had done what was asked of them.
"We were not efficient against the Netherlands. We had lots of scoring chances, we should have put some away.
"The coach honed in on this: efficiency, efficiency, efficiency. We need to get in front of the goal and create those chances.
"We're all very happy, all of the forwards able to score – happy days!"
