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Yes, there are much more cruel ways than a penalty shootout in which a team can be eliminated in the World Cup. If you have any doubts about it just ask a Senegal supporter.
The penultimate day of the Group stage matches, Colombia defeated Senegal 1-0 after the Barcelona man Yerry Mina scored his 2nd goal of the World Cup from a neatly taken Corner, after scoring his 1st one against Poland, resulting with the 2002 Quarterfinalist being knocked out of the group stages of the World Cup due to poor disciplinary record.
In a match where Senegal was denied a first-half penalty after VAR determined that Tottenham's Davinson Sanchez had made a legal lunge on Liverpool's Sadio Mane. Everything seemed to be favouring Senegal as they saw Colombia's best player James Rodriguez being substituted as well as getting a 16th-minute penalty(reversed by VAR) in a first half where Senegal was clearly the better team on the pitch despite their low possession(43%), but still couldn't find the decisive goal that would have taken them through.
The second half saw a much improved Colombian side taking on the pitch with the Colombians taking their first touch in the opposition penalty box in 57th-minute of the match. Despite having around 60% possession it was a corner from Quintero that made the breakthrough for the Colombians in the 74th-minute.
The last 15 minutes of the match saw Senegal on the offensive searching for that elusive goal that would've taken them through, unable to find a way through Arsenal man David Ospina.
As the news of Colombia leading against Senegal reached the Japanese, saw them resorting to boring football which saw the ball rarely going out of the Japanese half as they passed the ball among themselves knowing a goal being conceded or 3 more yellow cards being issued will see Japan being knocked out of the World Cup instead of Senegal.
At the end with both the matches ended in 1-0 to Japan and Senegal respectively with Japan and Senegal on equal points, equal goal difference, equal goals scored and drawn result in their head to head. Despite all these Japanese prevailed over Senegal on Fairplay after receiving 2 yellow cards lesser than the Senegalese, with a pair of yellow cards in the 90th and 91st minute of their match against Japan for Cheikh N'Doye and Youssouf Sabaly proving to the decider.
The result saw Senegal being the first team to be knocked out by the Fairplay rules as well as the last African team to exit this tournament. 2018 World Cup will witness the first knockout stage without the presence of an African team since 1982.
Here is how Twitter reacted to the unfortunate elimination of Senegal
