Route to the World Cup
Netherlands
It didn’t look good for Netherlands when they started off their qualifying campaign losing 4 – 2 against Turkey in Istanbul. However, they remained unbeaten for the rest of the qualification in Group G winning seven and drawing two games. With Norway in the group, they also faced a stern challenge with Eling Haaland scoring in a 1 -1 draw in Oslo. The Flying Dutchmen have never won the World Cup but have a fantastic record as three times runners-up and one third and fourth place finish.
Senegal
This is the third time that Senegal have qualified to play in the World Cup with their best performance culminating in a quarterfinal appearance in 2002. Senegal remained unbeaten in their progress towards World Cup qualification in Qatar. In the group stage they won five games and drew one against Togo away from home. They still had to beat Egypt in an eliminator where Liverpool players Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah came up against each other on opposing national teams. Senegal narrowly qualified for the world cup on penalties with Sadio Mane scoring the winning spot kick.
Alongside Senegal, Netherlands will face Ecuador and the host nation Qatar in Group A of the World Cup.
Current Odds at mr.play
Let us not forget that in February 2022 Senegal won the African Nations Cup, beating Egypt in the final on penalties. That together with their qualification for the World Cup shows that they can handle the pressure and you can currently get odds of 9/2 for a Senegal win. On the other hand, Netherlands will go into the game as favourites and a win for them is currently priced at 63/100. Netherlands are 8th in the world rankings while Senegal sit 18th so the game is going to hotly contested and the odds for a draw are priced at 11/4.
Conclusion
Netherlands v Senegal will be an exciting group match and a fantastic opener to the World Cup. With former teammates Sadio Mane and Virgil van Dijk going toe to toe it will be an intriguing battle to see unfold. Here at mr.play, we offer a huge range of betting markets on every World Cup match, so be sure to check them all out.