Senegal created a piece of unwanted history on Thursday, by becoming the first team ever to be eliminated from the FIFA World Cup 2018 on the fair play rule.
Their game against Colombia looked destined for a draw and Poland winning against Japan, as Senegal had set itself to qualify for the last 16, as Group H winners. But with Yerry Mina’s late goal, it gave the South Americans victory and left Senegal and Japan level on points, goal difference and head-to-head.
It meant that, as the full-time whistles blew in Samara and Volgograd, Senegal was eliminated due to having accumulated two more yellow cards than Japan. Russia 2018 is the first FIFA World Cup, in which fair play rule had been active after it was introduced to all FIFA competitions after Brazil four years ago.
