Sunday at Al Bayt Stadium is likely to be an emotional occasion for Kalidou Koulibaly. Senegal’s captain has the chance to make history by leading his country into the World Cup quarter-finals for the first time since their tournament debut in 2002, when midfielder Papa Bouba Diop set the tone for an unforgettable campaign by scoring the winner in a shock 1-0 group-stage win over reigning world champions France.
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Koulibaly wore No 19 on his armband in tribute to Diop — who died two years ago after a long illness — as he scored his first international goal against Ecuador to secure Senegal’s place in the round of 16 on Tuesday. “He was our childhood, he was everything to Senegalese football,” the Chelsea defender said after the match. “He was a big loss for us. He is a Senegalese legend.”
Standing in the way of Koulibaly and Senegal are England, who arrived in Qatar with ambitions of winning the World Cup and made the group stage look considerably easier than fellow European heavyweights Spain, Germany or Belgium. Gareth Southgate can also call upon Chelsea team-mates Raheem Sterling, Mason Mount and Conor Gallagher to offer a more familiar assessment of the type of resistance Koulibaly will provide on Sunday.
Sadio Mane’s absence from this World Cup due to injury has made Koulibaly the symbol of this Senegal team, but in some respects he was always more fundamental to their identity. The path that led Aliou Cisse’s team to this tournament as African champions was built above all on defensive solidity; they conceded just five goals in eight qualifying matches, and kept five clean sheets in seven games en route to AFCON glory in February.
That standard has slipped in Qatar. Senegal conceded four goals in their three Group A matches, beaten 2-0 by Netherlands and failing to keep clean sheets even in victories over the World Cup hosts and Ecuador. Defensive failings are almost always collective, but there have also been reminders in those goals conceded of some of the ways in which Koulibaly individually has struggled at times in the early months of his Chelsea career.
For someone who stands 6ft 1in — and not 6ft 3in, as Napoli believed when they first agreed to sign him from Genk in 2014 — Koulibaly can be remarkably vulnerable in the air. It’s not uncommon to see him out-jumped in an aerial duel or be beaten to a high ball that a more aerially imposing centre-back would probably claim.
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This vulnerability has contributed to Chelsea’s poor defensive set-piece record in the Premier League this season, and it was an issue for Senegal against Qatar and Ecuador.
Liam Tharme has done an excellent job of breaking down how Senegal’s relatively narrow shape out of possession leaves space on the flanks for opponents to exploit, and Qatar’s only goal of the group stage comes initially from a long diagonal pass out to the right wing.
Ismaeel Mohammed crosses towards the far post, and Koulibaly is well positioned to clear the danger. But he waits for the ball to come to him rather than attacking it, allowing Mohammed Muntari the chance to run in from behind him, leap and power a header past Edouard Mendy.
Koulibaly was also partly at fault for the goal Senegal conceded against Ecuador, who targeted Cisse’s unusual strategy of defending corner kicks almost entirely zonally. This time the ball is whipped in towards the near post by Gonzalo Plata and the Chelsea defender is simply beaten to the ball by Felix Torres, who flicks it on for Moises Caicedo to score.
It took all of three minutes for Koulibaly to atone for that error at the other end, restoring Senegal’s lead with a brilliant volley from a scrambled free kick that was a little reminiscent of his debut Chelsea goal against Tottenham in August.
He will be a threat to England from attacking set-pieces, but Harry Maguire and John Stones will both fancy their chances of getting the better of him in his own box.
When the ball is on the floor Koulibaly is far more assured, and there were numerous examples of his intelligent reading of the game in the group stage. Here, in Senegal’s opening loss to Netherlands, he picks the right moment to pressure Cody Gakpo as the PSV forward prepares to receive a floated pass out of defence…
… and cleanly pokes the ball away.
In the same game he is alert as Daley Blind clips a ball into the left channel behind the Senegal defence for Steven Bergwijn to chase.
Koulibaly calmly tracks the Ajax man and touches the ball further into the corner, where he can use his body to protect it before clearing.
In the Group A decider against Ecuador, Caicedo tries to send his Brighton team-mate Pervis Estupinan running into a crossing position on the left with a floated pass.
Koulibaly gets to the ball first and, with Estupinan arcing his run to apply pressure on a potential header back to Mendy, he instead deftly flicks the ball out towards the left touchline — the space the Brighton man has just vacated — for a team-mate to gather.
Senegal rely on Koulibaly’s sense for danger to sweep up at the heart of their defence, but his style at this tournament has already attracted criticism. In a column in The Sun newspaper previewing Sunday’s round-of-16 clash, former England defender and Arsenal captain Tony Adams revealed he has not been impressed by the African champions or their captain.
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“Defensively, Senegal are poorly organised,” he said. “I’m looking at Chelsea’s Kalidou Koulibaly and, although he has ability, he plays for himself and doesn’t organise the men around him… Koulibaly will get exposed one v one without the help he needs around him and that’s when the likes of Marcus Rashford can exploit him.”
Koulibaly’s struggles in the Premier League defending in one-v-one situations have generally come from his aggressive style; having committed to a tackle and failed to win the ball, he has often found himself unable to recover good position and feeling compelled to commit fouls.
In his most memorable one-v-one situation in the group stage he found himself isolated against Memphis Depay as Netherlands counter-attacked Senegal in injury time. This time he was too passive, giving the Barcelona forward too much room to shift onto his left foot and unleash a shot that Mendy could only parry into the path of Davy Klaassen.
Qatar and Ecuador lacked the personnel to test Koulibaly in isolation with speed and skill but with Rashford, Raheem Sterling, Bukayo Saka and Phil Foden all available to Gareth Southgate, confident and in good form, England are much better equipped to make the Senegal captain uncomfortable.
Koulibaly is also important to the way Senegal attack. His technical ability in possession distinguished him throughout his Napoli career, and he is the primary distributor out of defence for a team that heavily favours long passes into Cisse’s fast attacking runners.
This is the type of pass that poses the biggest threat to England: Koulibaly arcing a long diagonal over their defence into the path of a team-mate running in behind. Here he drops the ball virtually onto Ismaila Sarr’s foot behind Denzel Dumfries, only for a poor first touch from the Watford attacker to scupper the chance:
Koulibaly completed the most long passes (46) of any outfield player at AFCON in February as Senegal claimed the trophy for the first time.
In the absence of Mane — and with Idrissa Gueye suspended — he is unquestionably the talisman of the team as well as the captain, and his contribution to both ends of the pitch will be crucial to Senegal’s hopes of upsetting England and emulating the iconic achievements of Diop and Cisse in 2002.
(Top photo: Marvin Ibo Guengoer – GES Sportfoto/Getty Images)
