Iliman Ndiaye suffered a heartbreak when his nation fell to defeat in the first knockout game against England, but he insisted on getting back down to business with United in time for the Huddersfield Town clash.
It took until the second game for Ndiaye to make his World Cup debut as he came on as a substitute, and he marked the occasion with an Iliman Ndiaye-style of an assist. Skipping past a couple of players before perfectly weighting a cutback to an onrushing teammate.
His cameo appearance earned him a start against Ecuador in what was a must-win game for Senegal and they achieved that feat. Ndiaye again was at the forefront of Senegal’s attacks.
But the Senegal hearts, and Ndiaye’s World Cup dreams were crushed in the round of 16, by England, on Sunday the 4th of December.
Ndiaye arrived back in Sheffield the following day and he insisted on attending training straight away, which is testament to the versatile forwards attitude. Paul Heckingbottom demanded that Ndiaye was to take a couple of days off, and the forward was back in training last Thursday.
Even though he only had a couple of days back with the squad, the chemistry with his teammates was on display last weekend, against Huddersfield Town. On 15 minutes, Ndiaye skillfully dribbled away from a bunch of Huddersfield players, and then unleashed a stunning through ball to Billy Sharp who finished it off in style.
Speaking after the game on SUTV, Ndiaye shared his experiences of the World Cup:
“I’m obviously happy to be back playing for Sheffield United with the boys and to see the fans out there supporting us. After the World Cup finished I was focused on this game. I’ve just enjoyed it out there. I really loved it.”
“I learned a lot there, playing in the big games and the important games. Like the Ecuador one. We needed to win that game to qualify and I learned a lot. It just makes you want to go to the next one so I’m going to work harder and harder.”
The Senegalese international now has 12 goal-contributions in the league this season, making him the joint-top goal-contributor in the Championship. Iliman Ndiaye is responsible for a third of Sheffield United’s league goals, showing how reliant the Blades are on him.