Cameroon’s midfielder #22 Olivier Ntcham (R) and his teammates celebrate on the pitch after the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group G football match between Cameroon and Brazil at Lusail Stadium in Lusail, north of Doha on December 2, 2022. (Photo by Issouf SANOGO / AFP)
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(AFP) – Four years ago Africa lost a representative in the World Cup round of 16 for the first time since the round was introduced in 1986, but the response has been overwhelming in Qatar.
The 2022 tournament has seen two teams from the continent reach the knockout stage for the second time, after Algeria and Nigeria in 2014.
African nations have also broken a record 24 points in the group stage, breaking the previous best record of 15 points set in 1998.
Morocco beat world second-ranked Belgium and Canada en route to the top of Group F, while Senegal bounced back from an opening loss to the Netherlands to record wins over Qatar and Ecuador.
Brazil they were beaten by an African team for the first time with a 1-0 loss to Cameroonwho came out of the tournament in glory.
For Morocco, their clash with Spain next Tuesday will mark the first round of 16 appearance in 36 years.
Their fans will turn up again by the thousands to cheer on the only remaining Arab country in the World Cup.
“We hope to fly the flag of Africa football high”, said Morocco coach Walid Regragui.
“We’ve often been described as mediocre, not as good as other places.
“But I think in this World Cup we are showing that we can give any other team a run for their money, be it European or South American teams.
“I hope that in the future this means that we will see more African teams do well in the World Cup and why not an African champion?”
The 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico will involve more African countries than ever before, with the tournament set to expand from 32 to 48 teams.
If it doesn’t happen this year, Africa will be waiting for its first World Cup semifinalists sooner rather than later.
Senegal came the closest to making it through the group stage in Russia in 2018, missing out by having more yellow cards than Japan.
But they banished those memories when Kalidou Koulibaly led them to victory against Ecuador, after saying they were inspired by Morocco’s win over Belgium.
“We saw what Morocco did. They had a beautiful victory over Belgium,” Senegal’s coach Aliou Cissé said.
“Yes, it can be a source of inspiration for us.”
– Mentality change –
The teams that came out in the group stage still left their mark in the tournament.
Tunisia achieved a famous 1-0 win over champions France and Cameroon ended an eight-match losing streak at the World Cup with a thrilling comeback to draw 3-3 with Serbia before beating five-time champions Brazil.
More and more African players are starring in the best European clubs. Even with Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane absent from this World Cup, the dividends of that are in sight.
European teams have won each of the last four World Cups and no team from outside of Europe or South America has reached the final.
“You have to be strong for your first match against a European team because European teams are our enemies when it comes to these events,” Regragui added.
“We have players playing for European clubs… We need to take the European mentality and make it our mentality.”
The closest an African team has come to reaching the semi-finals was Ghana in 2010, when Luis Suárez’s handball and subsequent missed penalty by Asamoah Gyan led to a loss on penalties in South Africa.
The Black Stars were unable to avenge that heartbreak on Friday as Andre Ayew’s missed penalty in the 0-0 draw was history repeating itself and proved costly in a 2-0 defeat.
But Ghana they were at least happy to knock out Uruguay and send to South Korea.
“For me yes (it was good to knock out Uruguay),” said midfielder Daniel Amartey.
“It was tough because you can see his center, everyone is coming (forward).
“Uruguay needed a goal to go through”.
There is a long way to go, but for the second time, Africa has two hopeful nations that are three wins away from the final.
© Agence France-Presse
