Senegal U-20 – Israel U-20

The winner of the African Championship will play better than Europe

Senegal and Israel approach the second meeting of the group stage of the Youth World Cup in Argentina as the underdogs of the opening round. The African team started the main round of the tournament with a game against Japan, being considered the favourites to face them. But as early as the 15th minute, Matsuki fired a long-range shot into the corner of Ndiaye's goal to put Asia ahead. The episode was the only scoring chance for the Japanese team, after which they retreated to a position defence. In the second half, Senegal had at least five good goalscoring opportunities, but failed to score. Israel had an unexpectedly good start to the Youth World Cup against Colombia as an underdog. The Israelis created almost more goalscoring chances than South America, but they lacked the experience. Not only did they concede a 57th-minute lead, but they ended up losing by a second goal in the 90th minute. Oddsmakers had the odds of 2.19 to put the African side ahead of the losers in the table. Senegal qualified for the World Cup as the winner of the African Championship. Moreover, this victory in February and March was achieved in dominant style. The Senegalese won all six games, only two of them by one goal margin. This is the team's fourth appearance at the World Youth Cup, with their best achievement being fourth place in 2015. Senegal played better than the Japanese in the opening game, so a sense of an unfair outcome will help them tune up for the upcoming encounter. Israel are one of two World Cup debutants. Quite unexpectedly last year, Haim's side qualified from second place out of the European Championship group, beat Austria in the semi-finals and only lost to England in the final. The Israelis played well in the first meeting of the tournament, but that was because Colombia allowed them more than they should have. Senegal will play more rigorously in defence and will score more goals than their opponents thanks to their power play and accurate long-range goals.