Togolese-Ghanaian born Cody Gakpo spearheaded a late goal rush for Netherlands as they beat Senegal in their opening match of the FIFA World Cup at the Al Thumama Stadium.
And fans believe that Senegal and Chelsea keeper Eduardo Mendy was at fault for the two goals conceded by the African Champions. The game was tight and both sides had struggled to break the deadlock, with the Dutch failing to produce an effort on target from seven attempts.
But in the 84th minute Frank De Jong chipped in a ball, which Mendy failed to deal with adequately and Gakpo made no mistakes. Substitute Davy Klaassen then pounced on a rebound from Memphis Depay’s shot to add a second deep into stoppage-time to confirm the success.
“It was a difficult game and we were not careful with the ball,” said Cody Gakpo. “I think we can do a lot better but the victory obviously gives us a good feeling.”
“We were clearly in search of a goal and eventually we got it,” he added.
On Twitter fans had their say on Mendy’s performance.
@jamiewilkinson wrote: ‘The downfall of Edouard Mendy is a sad sight. Reality is that he was performing above the mean, he’s not a top goalkeeper. If he is, as reported, playing hardball over wages, he ought to have a serious rethink about whether he’ll ever play at this level after leaving Chelsea…’
Another wrote on Twitter: ‘Mendy went from a complete unknown to FIFA Goalkeeper of the Year to a genuine liability in the space of like 3 years.’
@lewdawg added: ‘I genuinely think mendy had the craziest purple patch in history because this guy is not a goalkeeper i’m sorry’
A Chelsea fan wrote: ‘Mendy clearly isn’t good enough to be our N1 right now but I just know if we sell him he will turn incredible again.’
Another added: ‘What happened to Mendy man. At one point he was being called the best GK in world football. It’s sad to see how quick his decline was’
