A night to forget as Harambee Stars suffer heavy loss to Senegal

Tuesday evening’s friendly fixture between Harambee Stars and the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations champions, Senegal, at the Titanic Sports Complex stadium in Antalya, Turkey, was far from being a battle of equals.

Stars, ranked 109th, were overpowered by the Lions of Teranga (ranked 18th). The Kenyans suffered their worst defeat since losing 9-0 to Zambia in 1978.

Harambee Stars started ambitiously, but Senegal’s formidable front line swiftly thwarted their attempts to build play from the back. The Stars held out for only eight minutes before the onslaught began.

Bayern Munich forward Nicolas Jackson started it all. He turned Baron Ochieng' inside out before charging into the box to slot Senegal’s first past Brian Bwire.

Wearing red jerseys, Harambee Stars had hit an iceberg in shark-infested waters, and Senegal smelled blood. They attacked again and again until the first half ended with Kenya trailing 6–0.

El Hadji Malick Diouf made it 2–0 in the 11th minute. Jackson doubled his tally in the 14th minute.

Then Sadio Mané, Senegal’s all-time top scorer, sensed an opportunity to speed up his journey to scoring 50 goals for Senegal. He scored an 18-minute hat-trick, with strikes in the 16th and 34th minutes sandwiching a penalty he converted in the 30th minute.

These three goals took Mané’s tally to 48 goals for Senegal. Mane’s second goal came after a rare moment of defiance from Harambee Stars, who almost scored a consolation goal, but Alpha Onyango’s long-range effort sailed narrowly over the bar.

Mane had already claimed the match ball, but Jackson was hungry for his hat-trick too. He had the ball in the net in the 44th minute, but the referee ruled it out for an offside before quickly blowing his whistle for half-time. Harambee Stars had suffered enough, so added time was not necessary.