According to L'Équipe, Senegalese media expressed little controversy over the penalty awarded to Belgium in the 120th minute of the FIFA World Cup Round of 16 match. Public opinion focused more on criticizing the tactical deployment of coach Thiaw.
In the FIFA World Cup Round of 16 match, Senegal at one point controlled the game and had a two-goal lead, but Belgium ultimately made a comeback, winning 3-2 in extra time.
The front pages and commentaries of several Senegalese media outlets on Thursday were almost entirely filled with shock and incomprehension. Although the penalty awarded to Belgium after Lamine Camara's contact with Tielemans in the last minute of extra time was considered somewhat harsh, local public opinion attributed the main responsibility for this collapse to Thiao. Almost no Senegalese media defended the coach of the "Teranga Lions," and many even demanded his dismissal.
The "Yoor-Yoor" front-page commentary wrote: "This historic defeat is not the fault of the players, but rather the coach's disastrous management in personnel and tactics. Facing the match, he chose to retreat significantly and created panic with a series of illogical substitutions—such as replacing Pape Gueye with Lamine Camara, who was clearly not keeping up with the game—the coach almost personally destroyed the heroic performance of the players."
"La Tribune" directly titled its piece "Poor substitutions eliminate Senegal" and wrote: "Coach Thiao completely lost his footing with substitutions." "L'Observateur" even demanded the coach's resignation with the title "Goodbye Pape!"
"L'Enquête" simply posed the question: "Should Pape Thiao be fired?"
"Le Quotidien" on Thursday morning ironically called it "Belgium's bad joke," also mentioning the coach's losing substitutions.
"Le Soleil"'s front page read "Coach's nightmare!" and stated: "The Senegalese were still leading 2-0 until the 85th minute, but lost their advantage within 3 minutes, and were then defeated by a penalty at the end of extra time. Thiao's choices, especially those substitutions that severely disrupted the team's balance, came at a heavy cost for this elimination."
"Sud Quotidien" titled its piece "Disappointment" and wrote: "Some defeats go beyond the scope of football itself. These failures are unspeakable because they are completely illogical. The defeat suffered on Wednesday at Lumen Field in Seattle undoubtedly falls into this category."
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