Cameroon entirely capable of upsetting Brazil in Group G
Aboubakar carries Indomitable Lions’ hopes in Qatar in tough first phase
Brazil take their strongest combination to a Fifa World Cup in many editions at Qatar 2022 and are the bookmakers’ favourites to lift the trophy.
For Cameroon, the reality that faces many African teams is that in player and other resources they remain a step behind especially European nations, and this will make it tough against strong Serbia and Switzerland line-ups in Group G.
Brazil: Their 7-1 semifinal defeat by Germany on home soil in 2014 shattered Brazilian football. Slowly they’ve been putting the pieces back together and in Qatar will have a line-up that is arguably the strongest on paper – and capable of ending the 20-year drought since Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho last lifted the trophy in 2002.
Neymar bleeds most from the 2014 failure, when the hopes of a nation were on him. At 31, back from injury and in form for Paris St-Germain, and approaching Pele’s Brazil record of 77 goals on 75, he goes to Qatar with enough experience to right the wrongs and with a better combination around him.
Since taking over in 2016 coach Tite won the 2019 Copa America and Brazil were runners-up in 2021 to Argentina, both on home soil. A quarterfinal exit to Belgium at Russia 2018 was a disappointment.
Serbia: Serbian great Dragan Stojković, who earned 84 caps for Yugoslavia, took over in March 2021 and by November that year they reached Qatar undefeated in Uefa’s Group A, beating Portugal (17 points) 2-1 in Lisbon to remain undefeated with 20 points.
An exciting team with an explosive frontline but suspect backline, they scored in every game but also conceded in all as they won six and drew two out of eight matches.
Aleksandar Mitrović is Serbia’s all-time top scorer with 50 goals, including the 90thminute winner in Lisbon. The combative attacker scored an English league record 43 goals in the 2021-22 Championship steering Fulham to promotion. Dušan Tadić was one of the exciting players who helped Ajax Amsterdam reach the 2018-19 Champions League semifinals and scored 16 goals with 22 assists at the Dutch giants last season.
Switzerland: Switzerland have the class to give Serbia and Cameroon a tight race for second place. Also unbeaten in the qualifiers with five wins and three draws, the Swiss (18 points) had the best defensive record along with the giants they topped by two points, Italy (16), both conceding only two goals.
Cameroon: Cameroon have pedigree in the World Cup and players of quality. The Indomitable Lions are known to be capable of an upset – think Italia 1990, and their dream quarterfinal run. They also should have a feel-good factor from having greatest player Samuel Eto’o as FA president and most-capped player Rigobert Song as coach.
Cameroon survived a tough qualifying Group D where they won five out of six games (15 points) and lost one, 2-1 away against Ivory Coast (13 points), also seeing off tricky Mozambique and Malawi. In a spectacularly dramatic playoff they lost 1-0 against Algeria away. At home Bayern Munich’s Eric Maxim ChoupoMoting struck in the first half to take the tie to extra time where Ahmed Touba appeared to take Algeria to Qatar with a 118th-minute goal. Karl Toko Ekambi struck in the fourth minute of added time for Cameroon to progress on away goals, sparking wild celebrations in Yaoundé.
Vincent Aboubakar, 30, is a Lions legend. The Saudi-based striker has played in three Nations Cups – scoring the 88thminute winner for the team then coached by Bafana Bafana boss Hugo Broos against Egypt in the 2017 final, and top scoring eight goals for the semifinalist hosts this year
– and two World Cups.
‘‘ Cameroon have pedigree in World Cup, quality players