After his team lost qualification to the CM's because of two yelow cards, Aliou Cisse, head coach of Senegal National Team, spoke at a press conference about the disappointment he felt after the last match with Columbia, lost 1-0. The Africans have finished at perfect equality with Japan, so for the first time in history the tie was made on the fair play: the team with fewer yellow cards received went further. Senegal had 6 warnings, while the Nippons only 4. 

“I am very proud of my team today and I’m proud of their work. But Senegal have not qualified because we did not deserve to qualify. Such is life,” he told FIFA.com after the defeat.

“Fair Play points are one of the rules and these rules have been established in the tournament regulations; we have to respect that. We would have preferred to be eliminated in another way but that’s the way it works and we knew that those were the regulations.

“I feel we could have scored in the first half and I think we controlled the match quite well. I’m just disappointed for my team, for this generation and for these players who fight every single day for our country.

“I will continue to encourage them and to be with them because I think we can expect many more good things from them in the future.”