African Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2021 hosts Cameroon will represent the continent at the World Cup 2022 tournament in Qatar alongside four others. Apart from Cameroon, Ghana, Morocco, Tunisia and Senegal are the other African representatives ahead of the World Cup 2022 tournament in Qatar. The Cameroonians suffered a major heartbreak when they lost to Egypt on penalties in the semifinals as they failed to host and win the AFCON tournament. However, the qualifying for the World Cup 2022 tournament in Qatar was able to soften the blow of not winning the recently concluded AFCON tournament on home soil.
Cameroon sealed their place in Qatar by beating Algeria via the away goals rule. They were able to recover from the blow of losing the first leg at home. The five-time African champions were beaten 1-0 at home in the first leg before securing a 2-1 win at the home of Algeria in the second leg to secure their spot in Qatar by virtue of scoring more away goals than their opponents.
The Cameroonians were the first African team to reach the quarterfinals at the 1990 World Cup tournament in Italy before the feat was matched by Senegal at the 2002 World Cup tournament in South Korea & Japan and Ghana at the 2010 World Cup tournament in South Africa. For Cameroon to set the pace for African teams once again by moving past the quarterfinals, they have to navigate past their group at the World Cup 2022 tournament in Qatar. They are in Group G alongside Switzerland, Brazil and Serbia.
Both Serbia and Switzerland won their respective group in the European qualifiers ahead of this year’s World Cup tournament to secure their spots in Qatar. On their part, five-time world champions Brazil sealed their place in Qatar by winning the South American qualifiers for the tournament ahead of arch rivals Argentina.