Was Benni set up? Coach reveals surprise at Senegal friendly after 8-0 thrashing

Football Kenya Federation promised to look into the manner in which Benni McCarthy’s Harambee Stars were thrashed 8-0 by Senegal but it appears they might have set the Bafana legend up to fail.

McCarthy oversaw his worst defeat in his coaching career and the second worst in Kenya’s history since losing 13-1 to Ghana in 1965 when a Sadio Mane-inspired Senegal put them to the sword in Turkey on Tuesday.

Kenya were brushed aside by the star-studded Senegal who took a 4-0 lead inside 17 minutes and were 6-0 up at halftime before completing the hammering in the second half.

Manousakis opens up on fixture change

Before the friendly games in Turkey, I asked Harambee Stars assistant coach Vasili Manousakis how we managed to get a friendly against a team like Senegal.

“It was a nice surprise for us. We don’t know how or who has agreed to the fixture,” he told me#HarambeeStars #FootballKE pic.twitter.com/rhN3xmrls0
— Ochieng' Stephen (@soo_ochieng) November 18, 2025

That led to questions on McCarthy’s tactics and selection for the match with many Kenyan fans feeling that he got it all wrong but it appears the former AmaZulu and Cape Town City coach had been preparing for a different match only to get Senegal.

“It was a nice surprise for us,” McCarthy assistant Vasili Manousakis had told the Kenyan media before the Teranga Lions hammering.

“We don’t know how, or who agreed to the fixture, but we were discussing playing Comoros and Madagascar. I think things changed with the tournament guys hosting the tournament that side and then we got Equatorial Guinea a little bit later and then Senegal was added.

Harambee Stars experienced painful outing

“So, I think two fixtures were key for us, we wanted to play two games in this window to give everybody a chance. We don’t know quite how it’s happened, but it has happened,” he added.

Kenya had played Equatorial Guinea on Friday, losing 1-0, before the carnage against Senegal, but the fixture list changed after McCarthy and his technical team had already called up players for the November friendly matches.

At the time of the team selection, Kenya had lined up friendly matches with Madagascar and Comoros but the plan changed later after McCarthy had left out most of his first-choice players as he looked to test a number of youngsters, who he was now forced to field against Equatorial Guinea and the star-studded Senegal.