The Indomitable Lions of Cameroon became the first African country to exit the ongoing World Cup in Brazil after a devastating defeat to Croatia at the Arena Amazonia in Amazonas in their second group A match played yesterday.
Croatia scored four times as the indomitable Lions failed to respond not even a single goal putting the end result at 4-0 in favor of the Southeastern Europeans.
Cameroon showed no sign of surviving the game and fell behind by Ivica Olic’s goal after only 11 minutes of play.
Five minute before the first half, Alex Song of Barcelona was show the exit by referee Pedro Proença after a brutal tackling on Bayern Munich’s Mario Mandzukic, reducing the Indomitable Lions to 10 men.
The African side wounds were deepened after Ivan Perisic made it 2-0 just after the break in the 48th minutes thanks to an error by goalkeeper Charles Itanje.
Mario Mandzukic proved his quality by heading home a third for Croatia in the 61st minutes and grabbed his brace for the day by adding Croatia’s fourth in the 73rd minutes.
This means Cameroon have failed to reach the second round for their fifth successive World Cup and the players could not hide their frustration.
Cameroon still have to face hosts Brazil in their last group game but that match would not save them from exiting if even they beat Brazil which look quite impossible.
Local reporters in Cameroon say people are angry about the team’s poor show and have attributed it to indiscipline by some of the players.
Discipline has been one of the key issues about African teams in this competition. Reporters covering the Ghana’s team said yesterday that, there was revolt and chaos amongst the players and officials of the team but the Ghana Football Association quickly dismissed such reports.
The chances of African teams in the tournament look slim as Ivory Coast is the only team to have picked points after beating Japan 2-1 in their first match. Cameroon lost their first match to Mexico by a goal to nil while Nigeria failed to beat a relative weaker side of Iran by drawing 0-0 with the Asian side.
Ghana followed it with a disappointing 1-2 defeat to the United States of America while Algeria took the lead against Belgium but failed to even pick a point as Belgium came from Behind to the Desert Foxes by two goals to one.
Issaka Adams / NationalTurk Africa Sports News
Writer’s Email Address: Adamsisska@googlemail.com
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