Edouard Mendy kept goal and enjoyed a quiet evening between the posts in Dakar, although his clean sheet was spoiled by a very late Benin consolation. Sadio Mane netted all three of the Senegalese goals, two of them penalties, to become his country’s record scorer, surpassing Henri Camera’s 31 strikes for the Lions of Teranga.

Mane’s first two goals arrived before the midway point of the opening 45 minutes as the AFCON champions asserted their authority, the game briefly paused by floodlight failure. Mane completed his hat-trick on the hour with the visitors reduced to 10 men.

Senegal travel to Rwanda on Tuesday in their second qualifier.

In the Nations League, Italy and Germany drew 1-1 in Bologna. Timo Werner played the full game and Kai Havertz came on for the final quarter when the contest burst into life.

Germany dominated much of the first half without creating many clear chances. Serge Gnabry missed the best, with Francesco Acerbi tracking Werner everywhere, and regularly bringing him down, too.

Italy were much improved in the second half and Gianluca Scamacca of Sassuolo twice went close. Germany sub Jamal Musiala wasted a rare opportunity for the visitors, before Kai Havertz made his entrance with 20 minutes remaining.

Barely 60 seconds later Italy led, Lorenzo Pellegrini tapping in debutant Wilfried Gnonto’s low cross, but their advantage was short-lived. Werner and Havertz combined and then Jonas Hofman’s cross caused problems, hitting Werner and falling kindly for Joshua Kimmich to fire in. A flurry of late subs disrupted the finale as both teams settled for a point.

Jorginho and Emerson were not involved having been two of several Italians released from international duty by Roberto Mancini for the remainder of this batch of Nations League fixtures.

In the other game in Group A3, England suffered their first defeat since the final of Euro 2020, beaten 1-0 by Hungary in Budapest.

Mount was deployed on the left of a front three also containing Harry Kane and debutant Jarrod Bowen, and he set up an early chance for the Tottenham striker which Kane fired wide.

Hungary, such tricky opponents at last summer’s Euros, soon bared their attacking teeth. Conor Coady had to clear a shot off the line and Jordan Pickford made a good save before the hosts’ skipper Adam Szalai tried his luck from just inside the England half. Although it dropped a fraction wide of Pickford’s right-hand post, it underlined Hungary’s growing confidence in front of an excitable home support made up mostly of children because of stadium ban regulations.

The introduction of Bukayo Saka at left wing-back at half-time energised England and gave Mount a bit more space to work with when in possession. The Arsenal man had an early shot saved and Mount almost created a good chance for Kane, between more spells of Hungarian dominance.

On the hour James came on for Trent Alexander-Arnold at right wing-back, and Jack Grealish replaced Mount.

Unfortunately James’ first contribution of note was to concede a harsh penalty after coming together with Zsolt Nagy just inside the box. A VAR check did not deem it a clear and obvious error, and Dominik Szoboszlai picked out the bottom corner with his spot-kick.

The Three Lions sprung to life and Foden and Jude Bellingham had efforts saved, before James put a teasing free-kick on Coady’s head. It bounced agonisingly wide.

Hungary missed a great chance to put the game to bed and then with seven minutes left, James slipped in Kane whose tame shot was too close to the keeper. Kane hit the side-netting and a couple of injury-time crosses from James were cleared as England threw everyone forward in vain.

They play Germany in Munich on Tuesday next.

At youth level, Bryan Fiabema played the first half of Norway Under-19s 1-1 draw with the Netherlands in a European Championship elite qualifier. Fiabema had one good chance deflected wide with Norway trailing 1-0, although the visitors would equalise in the second period, before having a penalty to win it saved late on.

An England Under-17 team containing Leo Castledine, Zain Silcott-Duberry and Samuel Rak-Sakyi beat Norway 3-0. Rak-Sakyi replaced Silcott-Duberry in the 57th minute, shortly before England scored their first two goals.