Before the actual game, when they were in great spirits and sashaying in vocal form down the hallway to the dressing room, Cameroon’s highlight of the evening seemed to arrive. From there, their night went downhill until Vincent Aboubakar’s stunning header gave the Indomitable Lions their first victory over Brazil in the 92nd minute.
Rigobert Song’s team was eliminated as a result of Switzerland defeating Serbia by a score of three points and the captain celebrating by pulling off his shirt and receiving a second yellow card.
A disappointed coach stated, “My players deserve praise. They’ve demonstrated that they ought to have performed better in the two games prior to this one. It really is a shame that we are leaving now because we steadily got better. My guys have my trust, and they have performed well.
Song was sidetracked by a spat with André Onana earlier in the competition, which foreshadowed him benching his starting goalkeeper. “There were a few initial issues, but they were quickly remedied. The group is always given precedence over the individual. We need discipline to play great football, and that’s where we’ve fallen short in the past, he remarked.
Brazil then wins Group G based only on goal differential and advances to play South Korea, however this was the first time ever that a team from the same continent as Cameroon lost. The first Brazilian coach to lose to an African squad, according to Tite, who added: “We will have to suffer for 24 hours before we can start preparing. When we lose, we experience the loss, as we should. It is a part of the context, thus we must experience it.
‘Who lost?’ Those of us. Our preparation, victories, and defeats are all shared. This competition provides us with food for thought and something to consider. There is little recovery time in between games.
Neymar provided an update on his injury after Brazil tweeted a video of him working out. Regarding Neymar and Alex Sandro, let’s wait and see as we still have time on our side. They haven’t started working out with a ball yet, so we need to watch them and see how they perform.
Danilo has been improving favourably; he put in a lot of effort with the ball, has improved functionally, and can now practise regularly with the other players.
Only Fred and Éder Militio were kept from the victory over Switzerland, but Dani Alves was the most notable newcomer. At 39, he added winning cap No. 125 to his impressive resume, tying him with Roberto Carlos for second place among Brazilian players in terms of appearances. He also became his country’s oldest World Cup captain.
Cameroon’s problem could be summed up as a booking for Pierre Kunde for clipping Rodrygo, whose afterburners zipped diagonally. Hurling at them were pace, trickery, creativity, and directness. Collins Fai, who was wheezing, was the next to receive Ismail Elfath’s yellow card, the referee mildly smirking at the right-protests. back’s Again, Rodrygo was fouled, and Alves’ free shot was weak, but Brazil’s one-way traffic was drifting into construction zones, trapping Cameroon at every turn.
A Brazil goal was missing from all of this ball-hogging behaviour. They had 68.4% of the possession, but Tite’s close-to-second string has so far lacked slick execution at the goal posts. Cameroon would adore having this issue. One of the few times they were permitted to go close to the Brazil No. 1 as the half approached was an Aboubakar dink into the area that Ederson cleared up. But then, in what was essentially the final move of the half, they shocked Brazil.
When Moumi Ngamaleu chipped the ball in from the left, Bryan Mbeumo’s header hit the turf first and skidded high enough for Ederson to have to jump to the right to stop the goal.
Gabriel Martinelli had earlier skipped down the Cameroon area from the left and fired at Devis Epassy’s goal, but when the teams resumed play after the break, Cameroon still had a chance to get the victory needed to have any hope of playing in the last-16.
The finest way to start what they thought would not be their final 45 minutes of Qatar 2022 was Mbuemo’s corner claim off Bremer. However, there was no dividend from the kick.
Fred’s mistake in the centre circle served as a warning that Brazil had gotten complacent, but what was actually happening was that one side was honing its reserves for the upcoming battles, while the other was trying to avoid oblivion by winning and Switzerland giving up their lead. The former occurred, but not the latter. Cameroon’s performance was insufficient, but they now have a victory to add to their triumph over Argentina at the championships in 1990.
Song ended on a positive tone. He declared, “This is just the beginning.