Aliou Cissé exudes the kind of gentle composure to suggest he is not easily thrown, but he needed a few seconds to consider how best to answer the kind of question he clearly didn’t expect on the eve of Senegal’s second Group H match against Japan. It was a curveball seemingly from nowhere. How did he feel about being a sex symbol to Russian women? Cissé broke into a nervous smile. “I don’t know,” he said cautiously. “There are millions of Cissés in Senegal and around the world. But it’s good to be loved.”

The manager of Senegal is making an impression beyond the usual footballing parameters but deep down what concerns him is only the quality of the job he is able to do with his team. He gave off a mixture of determination and quiet optimism about the consequences of this match. “The team who wins will be nearly qualified,” he said, emphasising the nearly. He knows from experience that the joy of winning an opening tournament match brings no guarantees and must be a force for motivation rather than relaxation.

In 2002, he was captain of the legendary Senegal team that created shockwaves with a World Cup win against the might of France, before pressing on to the last eight. He wants his team to emulate that mix of mental toughness and the freedom to play ambitious football. Something about this generation reminds him of the class of 2002 and he has set them the challenge not just to match previous feats but to exceed them.

“We want to do at least as well as the 2002 generation,” he said. “That was a beautiful generation but so is this one. But only by winning matches we can do better than 2002. We have won only one match already. The mentalities are different between these two groups – mostly in the head. We had more extrovert characters then, they are more introverted now.”

The preparation for this key match takes that into account and Cissé wants his team to focus on building a strongly disciplined platform, from which their most speedy and skilled performers can spring.

“These are players who have grown. I am with players who have been in the national team for a long time and they are at big clubs. They want to write their own history. We don’t have a World Cup every year. They know that this could be their last. That is close to their heart.”

As if to press home the value of this opportunity he reminded everyone that Japan are competing in their sixth consecutive edition, whereas this is Senegal’s second – their only qualification since 2002.

Senegal and Japan have had excellent wins against Poland and Colombia respectively. Akira Nishino sounded realistic, though, about the scale of problems he faces against a team that pose very specific challenges. Senegal’s physical prowess, in size and speed, was an issue bought up repeatedly. “The image we have about African teams is that their physicality is superior,” he said. “We have to cope with that. These past several days I have been telling Inui and Oshima [two of the smallest players] to gain 5kg and grow 5cm but that failed. So we have to do something else. We are going to take Senegal on using the ball. We have to use our brain rather than physique.”

He confessed that he had been discussing a plan to contain Sadio Mané. “We are giving all players information about Mané. It might be one-on-one or three-on-one. He also has an influence on other players and that is what we are concerned about.”

Mané brushed that off. “It’s personal pride to hear everyone talking about me but also an important trap to be avoided,” he said. “The whole group is important for Senegal. We are going to try to concentrate on ourselves and what we have to do. It’s the team who won last time, thanks to the big boss who did all the work, who made the strategy, which has worked really well. There will be no worries if we work together.”