World Cup 2022: a Cameroon already up against the wall
Cameroonian striker Éric-Maxim Choupo-Moting.
AP - Themba Hadebe
Text by: Farid Achache Follow
2 mins
With his experience as a player, will coach Rigobert Song find the resources and the right speech not to repeat the poor performance of the Indomitable Lions against Switzerland with a 1-0 defeat?
The Cameroonians will play their 25th World Cup match against Serbia on Monday 28 November.
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From our special envoy to Qatar,
Cameroon, heroes of the 1990 edition, with a first quarter-final for an African selection, have since won only one World Cup match in five editions, in 2002: 1-0 against Saudi Arabia , with a goal from Eto'o.
We are waiting for Eric Choupo-Moting
Since then, the country is deluded with illusions at each participation but returns home empty-handed and frustrated.
“
Cameroon's last victory is certainly a long way off, the only promise we can make is to give the best of ourselves
,” midfielder Samuel Oum Gouet had announced before the match against the Swiss.
A few days before starting the tournament, Cameroon was defeated in a friendly match against Panama.
Cameroon striker Éric Choupo-Moting opened the scoring in the 48th minute, cementing his side's dominance.
Then, the Panamanian Michael Murillo equalized with a free kick (55th) during this disputed meeting at the Mohammed Bin Zayed stadium.
Against the Swiss, Eric Choupo-Moting failed to be decisive and was even released in the second half in favor of Vincent Aboubakar.
Rigobert Song justified this choice at a press conference, announcing that he wanted to "
preserve
" the former resident of Paris Saint-Germain, who had a very good first part of the season with Bayern Munich.
He is now expected against Serbia.
Switzerland, just an incident?
In the event of another poor performance by the Lions, the critics will not be long in coming.
The cookie-cutter declarations of President Samuel Eto'o, now at the head of the federation, prodigiously annoyed the former goalkeeper Joseph-Antoine Bell.
“
I don't see why we couldn't win it
(the World Cup),” said Eto'o, predicting a final against Morocco.
"
It may be a new way for the little ones to talk about them, they will have won the world cup of declarations ...
", replied to AFP Bell, 68, who has 70 selections and won two African Cups of Nations.
Captain Vincent Aboubakar, he assured that Cameroon had "
nothing to envy to Brazil
".
After snatching qualification for the World Cup in a historic double confrontation against Algeria, Cameroon will be keen to show better that Switzerland was only an incident in this course in Qatar.
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