A week is gone at the World Cup and already two African teams have been knocked out of the tournament.
It’s terrible to see, but Morocco and Egypt gone with two defeats.
Senegal are the only team from the CAF confederation to have registered a win in Russia so far.
Then Nigeria face Iceland this afternoon (5pm) and Tunisia take on Belgium on Saturday (2pm).
The forecast doesn’t look good.
But let me talk about the African approach.
Morocco went into the World Cup full of confidence thanks to a string of good results and should really have opened up with a more attacking game against Iran.
Unfortunately, being such a strong defensive side, their first instinct was not to give away goals.
Also attacking from the wider areas didn’t help when their build-up was as patient as theirs was.
Hakim Ziyech, their star man in midfield, just couldn’t open things up in more central areas, which made it much easier for their opponents to anticipate attacks.
Still, I do feel that a less cautious approach would have been better than the dull performances they put in, especially in the group they were in.
The opener against Iran was probably their best chance of getting the three points in a group that features Spain and Portugal.
Egypt were even more disappointing.
A lot of their lacklustre performance can be put down to their reliance on Mo Salah and the Liverpool man was nowhere near his best.
Thanks to his shoulder injury in the Champions League final, he was cagey in his approach.
After missing the opening defeat to Uruguay, his movement against Russia wasn’t the fired-up displays we saw during the Premier League season or his team’s run to the final in the Ukraine.
He was scared to take contact and, in the end, Pharaohs coach Hector Cuper had to admit that his star man was not ready for the World Cup.
Nigeria looked clueless against Croatia.
They couldn’t use their pace or physical strength against wily old operators like Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic in the midfield and they paid the price as the two La Liga-based maestros pulled them apart.
With the likes of John Obi Mikel in midfield and the hardworking Wilfred Ndidi, you didn’t expect Modric to boss the game like he did.
Mikel may not play as deep as he did in his Chelsea days, but his former role of enforcer could really have put the old master in two minds when he was in possession.
Once again, the Super Eagles also tried to use their wings as a threat.
But if you are not turning the defence around by getting in behind them, crosses are going to be cleared all-day long.
And this weekend against a strong and defensively solid Iceland team, they are going to struggle.
Tunisia rode their luck against an England side that ripped them to shreds in the opening 20 minutes.
Before Harry Kane had scored in the 12th minute, Jesse Lingard had a shot cleared off the line and Raheem Sterling should have scored in an empty net, but didn’t know what foot to shoot with.
After surviving the first-half onslaught, they used spoiler tactics to stop England, with fouls breaking England’s rhythm.
But again, they showed little more in attack than long balls and against a three-man defence, a lone targetman is not enough to cause damage.
Against Belgium, who set up very similarly to England they are expected to struggle again.
The likes of tricky midfielder Nahim Sliti showed some good touches on the ball and the ability to wriggle free from markers, but without runners off him, he was unable to release the ball into more dangerous areas.
That leaves us with Senegal as the only African team to win.
And what a win they got over Poland.
The Lions of Teranga have a very solid six-man defensive unit and kept the Poles at bay when they came through the centre and tried down the flanks.
The west Africans also used their pace on the counter to good effect.
After a lucky own goal, when Thiago Cionek deflected Idrissa Gueye’s wayward strike past the goalkeeper, Senegal scored perhaps the strangest goal at the World Cup.
The ref allowing M’baye Niang back on the field saw the Senegal striker race on to a backpass, round the keeper and score into an empty net.
While the goal stood, I can’t believe that a fluke like that will happen again.
But with matches against Japan and Colombia coming up, those three points in the bag will give Aliou Cisse’s manne a ton of belief.
Group H was by far the most difficult to predict and with Poland out of the way, the pace of Sadio Mane and Ismaila Sarr can cause real problems for the South Americans and Japan side short on stature against strikers Mame Biram Diouf and Sakho Diafra.