Friday’s showdown between Cameroon and Brazil at the Lusail Iconic Stadium (7.00 pm) serves to round off an exciting 2022 World Cup Group G.
Cameroon’s hopes of joining Brazil in the round of 16 are slim but still exist, as they need to win here and hope Serbia and Switzerland share the spoils in the other Group G fixture.
Rigobert Song’s men pulled off a spirited comeback to hold Serbia to an eye-catching 3-3 draw on Monday, roaring back from a 3-1 deficit on the back of Vincent Aboubakar’s stellar off-the-bench performance.
Unfortunately for the Indomitable Lions, a narrow 1-0 defeat to Switzerland on day one, where they could have walked away with something more, will likely come back to haunt them.
And while their rivals on the opposite side seek their first knockout appearance at the World Cup in 32 years, Brazil’s 100% win ratio in the opening two rounds fired them into the last-16 with a game to spare.
Tite’s men have found a recipe for success and followed it up in detail as they defeated Serbia and Switzerland ‘to nil’ following a scoreless first half.
Even without Neymar, who picked up an injury against the Serbs on matchday one, the Selecao eked out a 1-0 triumph over Murat Yakin’s team on Monday, courtesy of Casemiro’s late screamer.
Match Preview
Cameroon
There’s plenty of symbolism in this match for Cameroon, whose maiden World Cup outing was against Peru and a first victory at the tournament came against Argentina, both Brazil’s fellow CONMEBOL rivals.
However, the Cameroonians are on the brink of a sixth consecutive World Cup group stage elimination, especially considering their proneness to roll over on day three.
Indeed, the Indomitable Lions have never won their final group stage fixture in seven previous appearances at the World Cup (D2, L5).
Brazil
A hard-earned win against Switzerland extended Brazil’s sensational unbeaten streak in the World Cup group stages to 17 matches (W14, D3), an outright record at the tournament.
But it’s been a while since the Selecao last completed an entire World Cup group-stage journey with all three victories, last doing so on German soil in 2006.
They are likely to emulate that feat in Qatar, considering they’ve won all seven previous World Cup encounters against nations from the CAF confederation by an aggregate score of 20-2.
Cameroon vs Brazil Head-to-Head
Brazil’s formidable World Cup record against African nations includes a thumping 4-1 triumph over Cameroon in the final group-stage game in 2014. They had previously thrashed the Indomitable Lions 3-0 in their first-ever World Cup H2H in 1994.
Yet Cameroon’s 1-0 win over Brazil in the FIFA Confederations Cup in 2003 remains the only time a CAF-region side has ever outscored the Selecao or registered a clean sheet against them.
Cameroon vs Brazil Potential Line-ups
Cameroon (4-3-3): Devis Epassy; Collins Fai, Jean-Charles Castelletto, Nicolas N’Koulou, Nouhou Tolo; Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa, Martin Hongla, Pierre Kunde; Bryan Mbeumo, Vincent Aboubakar, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting.
Brazil (4-1-4-1): Alisson; Eder Militao, Thiago Silva, Marquinhos, Alex Telles; Casemiro; Rodrygo, Bruno Guimaraes, Lucas Paqueta, Vinicius Junior; Gabriel Jesus.
Cameroon vs Brazil Prediction
In need of three points, Cameroon will have to come at Brazil at full bore, leaving plenty of space behind, which could lead to their demise.
On the other hand, Tite cannot field an understrength line-up even if he’d want to, with top-class talent in this Brazil side bursting at the seams.
We expect the Brazilians, who have yet to face a shot on target in Qatar, to stroll to another win.
Cameroon 0-2 Brazil
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