The two favourites to progress from World Cup Group A face off in their respective curtain-raisers on Monday as Senegal take on Netherlands at the Al Thumama Stadium.
The contest pits together the Africa Cup of Nations champions against a Netherlands side that failed to qualify four years ago, but have been tipped to impress this time around in Qatar.
Both teams will be without their star men for the opener, with Memphis Depay sidelined for the Dutch and Senegal struck with the shattering blow of Sadio Mane missing the entire tournament.
The statistics suggest that Mane's absence will hurt Senegal far more than Depay's will hurt Netherlands, making a Dutch win the more likely outcome in Qatar.
Netherlands have never lost against African opposition at the World Cup, winning three of their four previous meetings, while they have won six and drawn two of their last eight opening matches in the tournament.
Indeed, the Dutch have won 11 of their last 14 World Cup outings excluding penalty shootouts, with their only defeat in that time coming in the 2010 final against Spain.
Not since a 1-0 loss to Belgium in 1994 have Netherlands been beaten in a group game at the World Cup, underlining their status as favourites ahead of Monday's match.
Senegal can draw optimism from some statistics too; they have never lost a World Cup group game against a European team, winning two and drawing one, while they have won both of their previous opening matches of a World Cup.
Senegal's record includes their famous 1-0 triumph over France in the opening game of the 2002 tournament, although that match more than 20 years ago was their first and last clean sheet at the World Cup, with none of their eight matches on the grandest stage ending goalless.
Netherlands should be confident of finding the back of the net, then, although Senegal's hopes of doing the same have no doubt been hurt by Mane's absence, with the next highest scorers in their squad boasting relatively modest totals of 10 international goals.
Indeed, Mane's withdrawal has almost halved the number of goals within the Senegal squad, with Aliou Cisse's 26-man party now having just 39 international strikes in their ranks - fewer than Depay has on his own for Netherlands.
Barney Corkhill
Netherlands
Senegal
Ecuador
Qatar
England
USA
Iran
Wales
Argentina
Poland
Mexico
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France
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Japan
Spain
Germany
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Croatia
Belgium
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Serbia
Portugal
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