{"id":37968,"date":"2026-07-02T09:22:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-02T09:22:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/senegals-star-players-go-on-strike-after-withdrawing-from-world-cup-over-recent-unrest-soccer-sports\/"},"modified":"2026-07-02T09:22:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-02T09:22:28","slug":"senegals-star-players-go-on-strike-after-withdrawing-from-world-cup-over-recent-unrest-soccer-sports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/senegals-star-players-go-on-strike-after-withdrawing-from-world-cup-over-recent-unrest-soccer-sports\/","title":{"rendered":"Senegal&#8217;s star players go on strike after withdrawing from World Cup over recent unrest | Soccer | Sports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Senegal star Pape Gueye has withdrawn from international duty, sparking a dispute with head coach Pape Thiau. The Villarreal midfielder announced after the 3-2 World Cup defeat to Belgium that he would be leaving the team while the current technical staff remained in their posts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The 27-year-old revealed his shocking decision on social media after the African team was left reeling from the World Cup. Senegal scored two goals in two and a half minutes against Belgium in the Round of 32, surrendering their advantage and losing 2-3 in extra time. Habib Diarra and Ismaila Sarr gave Senegal a formidable advantage and looked poised to secure a spot in Tuesday&#8217;s Round of 16 clash with the United States. But goals from Romelu Lukaku and Youri Tielemans rescued Rudi Garcia&#8217;s side, with the Aston Villa star clinching the win with a penalty in the 125th minute.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>In a message posted on his Instagram Story, the 27-year-old said: &#8220;We will talk about the selection later&#8230;but today I will announce that as long as I am on this technical staff, I will be taking a break from the selection.&#8221; With Senegal holding on to a two-goal cushion, Gueye was removed just after time expired and Thiau brought on Monaco midfielder Lamine Camara. The game came alive in the final 10 minutes when Romelu Lukaku fired a shot from a narrow angle to pull the score to one point.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>After cutting the lead in half, Tielemans headed in Leandro Trossard&#8217;s shot before Senegal could properly rebuild. Belgium were soundly beaten by Senegal in second place until they had the chance to make a dramatic comeback.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Tielemans sealed a stunning comeback for Garcia&#8217;s side with a spot-kick awarded at the end of the second period of extra time following the intervention of the video assistant referee. Speaking after the loss, Thiau said: &#8220;We lost a really important match. We wanted to earn a spot on the Senegalese team and we thought we deserved it, but unfortunately we were eliminated.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sad, and the players are sad too, because they really wanted this.&#8221; Gueye, who scored twice in the 5-0 win over Iraq, was sent off shortly after the hour mark to be replaced by Kamara. The 45-year-old hinted that certain substitutions were needed after players asked to be sent off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Everton&#8217;s Iliman Ndiaye and Sunderland&#8217;s Khabib Diarra were sent off in the second period before the comeback, while Sadio Mane and Idrissa Gana Gueye were sent off in extra time. Thiau said: &#8220;They were tired and couldn&#8217;t continue. It was unprofessional of us to leave them on the field. We had to replace them.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>&#8220;Of course, when you lead 2-0 and lose the match, people inevitably talk about substitutions. But everything can&#8217;t be reduced to that. These changes were mainly determined by fatigue, rather than tactical considerations.&#8221;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Belgium will face the United States in the next round, where Mauricio Pochettino&#8217;s side defeated Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0. Florian Balogun experienced a contrasting fate as he found the back of the net before receiving his marching orders, but Malik Tillman stopped their advance eight minutes before the scheduled time.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Wednesday&#8217;s defeat represents the latest controversy in what has been a tumultuous few months for Senegalese football, following Thiau&#8217;s decision to lead his players off the pitch during the dramatic African Cup of Nations final against Morocco. Senegal awarded the hosts a penalty in stoppage time, causing the tactician to protest the decision and have his players removed from the field.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div>\n<p>The match eventually went on and Senegal shocked Morocco in extra time to secure a historic victory, but it was later ruled that the match would be forfeited for abandoning the pitch in the 90th minute.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/football\/2224296\/senegal-strike-world-cup-belgium\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Senegal star Pape Gueye has withdrawn from international duty, sparking a dispute with head coach Pape Thiau. The Villarreal midfielder announced after the 3-2 World Cup defeat to Belgium that he would be leaving the team while the current technical staff remained in their posts. The 27-year-old revealed his shocking decision on social media after<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37969,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-37968","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-matches"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Senegal&#039;s star players go on strike after withdrawing from World Cup over recent unrest | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/senegals-star-players-go-on-strike-after-withdrawing-from-world-cup-over-recent-unrest-soccer-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Senegal&#039;s star players go on strike after withdrawing from World Cup over recent unrest | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Senegal star Pape Gueye has withdrawn from international duty, sparking a dispute with head coach Pape Thiau. 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The 27-year-old revealed his shocking decision on social media after\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/senegals-star-players-go-on-strike-after-withdrawing-from-world-cup-over-recent-unrest-soccer-sports\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-02T09:22:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin_ok9yktt6\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/senegals-star-players-go-on-strike-after-withdrawing-from-world-cup-over-recent-unrest-soccer-sports\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/senegals-star-players-go-on-strike-after-withdrawing-from-world-cup-over-recent-unrest-soccer-sports\/\",\"name\":\"Senegal's star players go on strike after withdrawing from World Cup over recent unrest | Soccer | Sports - EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/senegals-star-players-go-on-strike-after-withdrawing-from-world-cup-over-recent-unrest-soccer-sports\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/senegals-star-players-go-on-strike-after-withdrawing-from-world-cup-over-recent-unrest-soccer-sports\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7016369.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-02T09:22:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#\/schema\/person\/6b2ade58a96ab056f743f12490573ae9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/senegals-star-players-go-on-strike-after-withdrawing-from-world-cup-over-recent-unrest-soccer-sports\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/senegals-star-players-go-on-strike-after-withdrawing-from-world-cup-over-recent-unrest-soccer-sports\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/senegals-star-players-go-on-strike-after-withdrawing-from-world-cup-over-recent-unrest-soccer-sports\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7016369.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/7016369.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/index.php\/2026\/07\/02\/senegals-star-players-go-on-strike-after-withdrawing-from-world-cup-over-recent-unrest-soccer-sports\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Senegal&#8217;s star players go on strike after withdrawing from World Cup over recent unrest | Soccer | Sports\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/eplvip.com\/\",\"name\":\"EPL VIP \u2013 Latest English Premier League News &amp; Updates\",\"description\":\"EPL VIP is your ultimate source for all things related to the English Premier League. 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