Africa has fallen short over the years, with the quarterfinals the furthest any country from the continent has gone in the tournament.
Brazil great Pele’s bold prediction over three decades ago that an African country would win the World Cup by year 2000 proved false.
Ever since, there have been other predictions and the most recent by Cameroonian FA president Samuel Eto’o. “Cameroon will win the World Cup final against Morocco,” he said in a statement that was described as “wild”.
The pressure will be on Aliou Cisse (Senegal), Walid Regragui (Morocco), Rigobert Song (Cameroon), Jalel Kadri (Tunisia) and Otto Addo (Ghana), as the men tasked with the responsibility to make Africa proud.
Cisse will be expected to fare better considering his longevity with the Lions of Teranga. He’s been in charge for eight years and Senegal are the reigning African champions.
SQUAD ASSESSMENTS
SENEGAL
They will pin hopes on their galaxy of stars, which makes for arguably the strongest squad from Africa’s teams, with many of their players in Europe’s top leagues. From defence to forwards, they have some experienced players in Kalidou Koulibaly (64 caps) and Idrissa Gueye (96), but Sadio Mane (93) has been ruled out through injury. If they can get a result against the Netherlands tomorrow, they should be able to negotiate past hosts Qatar and Ecuador, to reach the knockout phase.
GHANA
The Black Stars are the lowest-ranked African nation at the tournament (61), but got a confidence-boosting 2-0 win over Switzerland in a friendly on Thursday. They have tough opponents Portugal and Uruguay in their group. In terms of their squad, they face big problems in the goalkeeping department with the regulars out due to injuries. Lawrence Ati-Zigi is expected to be first choice, has 10 caps. Overall, it’s an inexperienced squad with 16 of the 26 players having 10 caps or less.
MOROCCO
Africa’s second-best team in terms of rankings, the Atlas Lions, will face some tough opponents like Belgium and Croatia in their group. Four years ago in Russia, they finished bottom of their group and since then, the squad has changed a lot. Similar to Ghana, their squad is fairly inexperienced with 12 players with 10 caps or less.
CAMEROON
The Indomitable Lions are arguably in the toughest group with Brazil, Serbia and Switzerland. Number one ranked Brazil are the tournament favourites, Switzerland have improved a lot and are now ranked 15th, while Serbia come in at 21st. Cameroon are 43rd. They’ll put up a fight with their experienced forwards Vincent Aboubakar (88 caps), Eric Choupo Moting (68) and Karl Toko Ekambi (50).
TUNISIA
The North Africans are not expected to do better than the other African countries. They boast experience in their squad with the likes of Youssef Msakini (88 caps), Ferjani Sassi (78), Ali Maaloul (83), Wahbi Khazri (71) and Ellyes Skhiri (49). However, getting past France and Denmark will be difficult.
5 PLAYERS TO WATCH:
- Mohammed Kudus (Ghana)
- André-Frank Zambo Anguissa (Cameroon)
- Achraf Hakimi (Morocco)
- Idrissa Gueye (Senegal)
- Wahbi Khazri (Tunisia)
SEVEN INTERESTING FACTS…
- Egypt became the first African country to play in the World Cup in 1934.
- So far, three African countries have reached the quarterfinals: Cameroon (1990), Senegal (2002) and Ghana (2010).
- Cameroon remain the only side in history to top a World Cup group with a negative goal difference. At Italy 1990, one-goal victories over Argentina and Romania preceded a 4-0 loss to the Soviet Union.
- Five World Cup winners were born in Africa: Claudio Gentile (Libya), Marcel Desailly (Ghana), Patrick Vieira (Senegal), Steve Mandanda (Congo DR) and Samuel Umtiti (Cameroon).
- Cameroonians Jacques Songo’o, Rigobert Song and Samuel Eto’o are the only Africans to go to four World Cups.
- Ghana’s Asamoah Gyan is Africa’s top scorer in World Cup history with 6 goals in 11 games.
- At South Africa 2010, Ghana’s Kevin-Prince Boateng and Jerome Boateng of Germany were the first brothers to play against each other in the World Cup.
*Statistics courtesy of Fifa.
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