Cameroon face Serbia on Monday morning in a group stage encounter described as “decisive” by Indomitable Lions manager Rigobert Song.
The 1990 World Cup quarter-finalists were narrowly beaten by a goal from Switzerland’s Cameroon-born Breel Embolo in their opener but were hardly outclassed by their European foes.
Serbia, conversely, failed to force Brazil’s Alisson into a single save. Dragan Stojkovic’s side kept the Seleçao goalless until the interval before ultimately falling to a deserved defeat.
Here’s everything you need to know about the meeting between two sides searching for their first points and goals of the World Cup.
Cameroon vs Serbia H2H Results (All Time)
Current Form (Last Five Games)
Cameroon team news
Song was able to welcome Olivier Ntcham back to training ahead of Cameroon’s match against Switzerland after the midfielder overcame some muscular discomfort.
With a fully fit squad at his disposal, Song overlooked Cameroon’s captain and talismanic goalscorer Vincent Aboubakar for the opener, instead lining up with Bayern Munich’s Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting through the middle. Given Aboubakar’s anonymous 15-minute cameo, Choupo-Moting may retain his lofty spot in the pecking order.
Cameroon Starting 11 (4-3-3): Onana; Fai, N’Koulou, Castelletto, Tolo; Anguissa, Oum Gouet, Hongla; Mbeumo, Choupo-Moting, Toko Ekambi.
Bench: Ngapandouetnbu, Epassy, Wooh, Ebosse, Mbaizo, Ondoua, Kunde, Ntcham, Mbekeli, Ngamaleu, N’Koudou, Bassogog, Nsame, Aboubakar, Marou.
Serbia team news
Stojkovic bemoaned the fact that Serbia had “three key players injured” for their opening-game clash with Brazil. Serbia’s entire 26-man contingent was part of the matchday squad but Aleksandar Mitrovic, Dusan Vlahovic and Filip Kostic were all carrying fitness concerns.
Mitrovic started against Brazil but Stojkovic stressed that he “came with a lot of problems to Qatar”. Vlahovic was summoned from the bench for the final 25 minutes and Filip Kostic didn’t feature at all. The Juventus wide man was sidelined with muscle fatigue and there is “a big question mark” surrounding his return date.
Serbia Starting 11 (3-4-2-1): V Milinkovic-Savic; Milenkovic, Velijkovic, Pavlovic; Zivkovic, Gudelj, Lukic, Mladenovic; Tadic, S Milinkovic-Savic; A Mitrovic.
Bench: Dmitrovic, Rajkovic, Erakovic, S Mitrovic, Kostic, Ilic, Babic, Duricic, Grujic, Lazovic, Maksimovic, Racic, Radonjic, Jovic, Vlahovic.
Both sides endured worrying drop-offs in the second halves of their opening fixtures. Serbia’s Stojkovic was particularly concerned with the decline suffered by his injury-riddled squad. “This is a surprise for me,” he admitted, “something strange.”
Switzerland’s victory consigned Cameroon to an eighth consecutive World Cup defeat. Only Mexico have ever lost as many as nine straight games on the global stage (between 1930 and 1954).
A fully fit Serbian squad would certainly be favourites to extend Cameroon’s losing run. However, given the fitness struggles of Serbia’s instrumental figures, Song may be able to lead Cameroon to their first World Cup point since he captained the team himself in 2002.
Prediction: Cameroon 1-1 Serbia
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