Cameroon-Serbia 3-3: goals from Castelletto, Pavlovic, Milinkovic, Mitrovic, Aboubakar, Choupo-Moting

From our correspondent Filippo Maria Ricci

November 28th
-Doha

Shaken by the Onana case, the match between Serbia and Cameroon, defeated by Brazil and Switzerland in their debut, was incredibly agitated even on the pitch. It ended 3-3, a result that serves almost nothing to Cameroon, who will close against Brazil, and a little more to Serbia, who will face Switzerland in the hope that they have lost against Brazil. Cameroon stops the streak of consecutive defeats at the World Cup at 8, which began in 2002, but does not find victory against a European national team that even escapes Italy 90.

Vlakhovic out

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After Onana’s purge, Songa offered Epassy a sixth international cap, and the boy who used to play in Greece and now makes it to Saudi fell short. In Serbia there is Sergej Milinkovic Savic, who has an ankle problem, Kostic returns but Vlahovic is still out. The match came alive towards the half hour, and exploded in the very long recovery granted at the end of the first half.

FRIULIAN GOAL

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Cameroon took the lead in the 29th minute with a tap-in by Jean-Charles Castelletto, son of Carlo, an engineer from Udine who moved to Lourdes where he met his Cameroonian wife. The tap-in on Castelletto’s far post came from a corner by Kunde, preferred to Oum-Gouet and the best of him, touched by Nkoulou and then by Sergej.

ONE-TWO AWESOME

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Serbia remained standing, Vanja made a couple of good saves on Kunde and in the exaggerated 6 minutes added at the end of the first part he gave the fragile Cameroon a tremendous one-two. First Pavlovic jumped into Zambo Anguissa’s head on a Tadic free-kick for the equalizer, and a moment later the excellent Zikvovic recovered a ball lost by Zambo Anguissa in the very dangerous area and offered it to Milinkovic-Savic. From the edge of the area, the Lazio player, imprecise up to that point, finished with his left foot at the near post, finding the advantage. Epassy’s faults are obvious.

WONDERFUL ACTION

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The crush of Cameroon continued in the second part. In the 53rd minute Hongla lost the ball and Tadic started a magnificent action which all from first through Mitrovic, Kostic, Sergej and Zivkovic led to Mitrovic’s goal, with Cameroon at the crib, helpless.

PROVIDENTIAL CHANGE

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In the 55th minute Song recalled the terrible Hongla to insert his second centre-forward, the veteran Vincent Aboubakar, who has been in Saudi Arabia for two years. The former Porto player took Cameroon on his powerful shoulders and in three minutes (53′-55′) beat Vanja with a precious lob and then served Choupo-Moting the incredible draw. Two perfect counterattacks by the Indomitable Lions, both led to the edge of offside: the Var said ok. After this moment of madness the game calmed down. Kostic and Mitrovic had two good chances in the final, squandered, and Vlahovic remained on the bench, evidently still not at his best.