2022 World Cup in Qatar | Breel Embolo offers victory to Switzerland against Cameroon (1-0)

No flamboyance but a successful first mission for Switzerland. The Nati entered its World Cup well by dominating Cameroon on the smallest of margins (1-0), Thursday Al-Wakrah. Seriousness and a goal from Breel Embolo (48th) allowed Murat Yakin’s men to crack the too docile Indomitable Lions. Switzerland take three precious points in a Group G which also includes favorites Brazil and Serbia.

The Nati can savor its success because it has struggled. If she wanted to take control of the ball at the start of the match, she was quickly called to order by the counterattacks of the fast Cameroonian attackers. Bryan Mbeumo spun on the left and went to solicit Yann Sommer, Karl Toko-Ekambi followed but also missed the target (10th). It was then the center-forward Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting who left the midfield to give work to the last Swiss rampart (14th).

Embolo contained then realistic

Something to calm the ardor of Yakin’s men, especially since Embolo, born in Cameroon, was initially tense and hesitant while the playing master Xherdan Shaqiri clearly lacked volume and therefore influence. Despite a dangerous header from Manuel Akanji from a corner (45th + 1), the Nati did not target any of their four shots in the first period. The Indomitable Lions were ultimately the most threatening and Silvan Widmer was not far from the fault in his area on his intervention in extremis to get ahead of Toko Ekambi (35th).

Switzerland, however, returned to the field after the break with more bite. She quickly found a space in the opposing camp and Remo Freuler shifted Shaqiri to the right for a low center perfectly exploited at six meters by Embolo (1-0, 48th). The Monegasque placed himself behind Jean-Charles Castelletto and Nicolas Nkoulou and deceived André Onana on this first shot on target to free his own even if he did not wish to celebrate this goal against his native country.

Badly inspired song

If Choupo-Moting moved, dribbled in his style and asked Sommer (57th), Cameroon failed to react collectively. Forced to play the game, he was rather disorganized with a solid but too neutral midfielder because he was failing in his placement like the disappointing Frank Anguissa.

Coach Rigobert Song also had the curious idea of ​​replacing Choupo-Moting and Toko Ekambi with Vincent Aboubakar and Georges-Kévin Nkoudou who brought absolutely nothing (74th). It was thus more Switzerland who proved dangerous in counterattacks at the end of the match with first the hard-hitting Ruben Vargas (67th) then Granit Xhaka with a long shot (88th) and the incoming Haris Seferovic, caught in extreme (90th+5). Silent like the other African Nations involved in Qatar, Cameroon suffered an 8th defeat in a row in the World Cup. Switzerland offered a little security before challenging Brazil next Monday.