EAST RUTHERFORD, NJ -- Kalidou Koulibaly acknowledged he was culpable for Senegal's 3-2 FIFA World Cup defeat by Norway at the MetLife Stadium on Monday, which leaves their prospects of reaching the knockouts hanging by a thread.
Having appeared sluggish in Senegal's opening 3-1 loss against France, Koulibaly ensured a disastrous outing against Norway, where he was directly at fault for two goals during another listless display as the Teranga Lions lost their second consecutive match at the tournament.
"What happened is what happened, unfortunately," he told ESPN. "Every ball I touched went wrong, but unfortunately, that's part of football.
"It's another kind of setback, that's a fact, but it's just part of the game. This time, [Norway] won, but I've won in the past too, so that's football.
"We made mistakes, I made a lot of mistakes, and that's really unfortunate, because losing a match in this way is a real shame, especially at the World Cup.
"We know the level here is very high, and you can't afford mistakes - we made too many to be able to win the match."
Koulibaly, once one of the great central defenders of European football, endured a miserable evening against Norway, having previously toiled against Kylian Mbappé and co in Senegal's opening fixture.
For Norway's opening goal, his touch and awareness completely let him down as he fluffed a clearance straight to Marcus Pedersen, under little pressure, with Landslaget's reserve leftback gleefully finishing beyond Édouard Mendy just before halftime.
Soon after the break, another Koulibaly lapse allowed Erling Haaland in for Norway's second, as the Al Hilal defender's sliding challenge failed to intercept a Martin Odegaard through-ball, allowing the Manchester City striker to thump home beyond Mendy.
For Norway's third, the 35-year-old lost possession after an interception, with Patrick Berg dispossessing the defender and playing in Haaland to take the contest beyond Africa's champions.
"I hurt my team today, but we have to get back up and move on," Koulibaly continued.
"There's definitely regret because we wanted to win, we wanted the three points, but instead we're left with a defeat. That hurts a lot."
The centreback also approved of head coach Pape Thiaw's decision to substitute him after 72 minutes, bringing on Pape Matar Sarr while putting the toiling Koulibaly out of his misery.
The ex-Napoli man still appears to be feeling his way back to fitness after not playing competitively since early April after sustaining a muscle injury during a training session with his club.
"If the coach decided to take me off, it's because he has the right to do so and because he felt I wasn't helping the team," the veteran continued, "and that's completely normal.
"Physically, I'm feeling better and better, but today things didn't go the way I wanted them to, and that's unfortunate.
"Still, I think the team reacted well and everyone should continue to support us because we actually did a lot of good things. The match was decided by mistakes, and that's really unfortunate."
Despite the defeat, Senegal still struck back at Norway, as they had done against France, first halving the deficit through Ismaïla Sarr in the 53rd minute before the Crystal Palace winger added another in the 92nd minute to give the Lions faint hope of a point.
Ultimately, they weren't to find an unlikely late equaliser, and Koulibaly believes that - with his team's support - both he and Senegal can still salvage something from their troubled Group I campaign.
"We're a family, and something like this can happen to anyone," Koulibaly concluded.
"Today, it happened to me, tomorrow it could happen to someone else. You know that it's part of football, I'm experienced, and I understand that's how football works.
"This time, things went wrong for me, but I just hope I can continue helping the team.
"We still had chances in stoppage time, and we were close. Another five or six minutes and I think we could have done more, but playing well isn't enough, we have to win."
Senegal must defeat Iraq in their final group game in Toronto on Friday, and improve their goal difference to give themselves the best chance of advancing to the knockouts as one of the best eight third-placed teams.