Seny’s seeking double delight

Club and country ambition

By Dave Flett

PACKING A PUNCH: QPR goalkeeper Seny Dieng clears the danger

PICTURE: Alamy

Seny Dieng insists there is “no limit” to what QPR and Senegal can achieve in the coming months.

The 27-year-old keeper’s club went into this weekend joint-top of the Championship – a division they have finished no higher than ninth in since being relegated from the Premier League in 2015.

His country, meanwhile, are preparing for next month’s World Cup finals with a squad – boasting the likes of Sadio Mane, Kalidou Koulibaly and Dieng’s fellow net-minder Edouard Mendy – that the Hoops’ number one reckons can become the first from Africa to make the tournament’s last four.

Potential

On the Loftus Road club’s potential this term and the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations winners’ prospects in Qatar, he said: “This season our (QPR) squad is special. We have special players who all fight for each other and I believe there is no limit on where we can go as a team.

“I feel the same about Senegal. We can definitely get to the semi-finals with the very strong squad we have got and our togetherness, which is incredible.”

If the Lions of Teranga are to make history, they may need to negotiate a potential last 16 contest against England – apossibility that Dieng declares: “I would 100 per cent relish.”

Having won his third cap during last month’s 1-1 friendly draw against the Three Lions’ opening group opponents Iran, Dieng also reckons Gareth Southgate’s men might not have a straightforward passage into the knockout stages.

“Iran are a good side,” he added. “We dominated them but, in the end, only got a draw. They will definitely fight for their lives against England and cause them problems by being compact, so you never know in football, because they’ll be ready on the counter-attack as well. It won’t be an easy game.”

Domestically, meanwhile, Dieng has been hugely impressed by the impact made in west London by rookie boss Michael Beale – the 42-year-old former assistant to Steven Gerrard at Rangers and Aston Villa with no professional playing career behind him.

“We could all see that he was a very good manager from the start, with the structure he brought in, the way he got us playing and how he pushed us to our limit every day,” the ex-Grasshoppers reserve explained. “Players feel that straight away and you respect somebody like that immediately.

Respect

“It was a very good appointment for us and, when we first saw him coaching, we couldn’t tell it was his first managerial job.”

Dieng feels too that the squad are better equipped this season son to secure positive results when attacking talisman Chris Willock is unable to take the field.

When Willock’s campaign ended prematurely following a first-half injury in mid- March at Nottingham Forest last term, QPR’s season fell off a cliff.

HONOUR: Celebrating with Senegal

Up to that point, the Londoners had only lost 29 per cent of their first 34 league fixtures – all of which Willock had featured in. Including the Forest game, however, which the visitors were drawing 0-0 when the ex-Arsenal winger hobbled off, Rangers went on to taste defeat in 67 per cent of their remaining games.

But, this term, Willock was sidelined by injury for last week’s 2-1 triumph over fellow high-fliers Reading – a result that saw QPR move level at the top with Sheffield United, who they had vanquished the game before, and Norwich.

Dieng added: “Any team would miss Chris because he is a stand-out player, but we are full of very good individuals and we still got a good win without him, which is a good sign.”