Africa-Press – Rwanda. Surely, the biggest story of the week will come if and when Cape Verde Islands secure their maiden qualification for a World Cup, which the minnows appear destined to complete across the next two matchdays.
Leading Group D on 19 points, four ahead of second-placed Cameroon, the islanders simply need one victory from their remaining fixtures to guarantee their place on the grandest stage.
This will be a remarkable feat, even in this era of the expanded 48-team tournament, given that Cape Verde, population of just over 500,000 people, will be the second-smallest World Cup qualifiers in history — behind Iceland.
Cape Verde’s rise to prominence has been outstanding; No. 70 in the FIFA World Rankings, the Sharks reached the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time only in 2013, and they have grown in prominence after tapping into the country’s extensive diaspora.
With Libya away and tiny Eswatini at home during the October internationals, expect Cape Verde to prompt carnivalesque celebrations when the dust settles on their qualifying campaign.
… but what does this mean for Cameroon?
Cameroon are Africa’s most successful side in terms of World Cup qualification, having reached the tournament eight times, and given their wealth of talent they would have fancied their chances of progressing again when Group D was drawn.
But their prospects have been undermined by the chaotic managerial tenure of Belgian Marc Brys against a backdrop of the at-times bewildering presidency of Cameroon’s football association chief Samuel Eto’o.
They were held away in Libya, Angola and Eswatini, before being defeated by Cape Verde in Praia in September, and they will be aware that the group leaders are unlikely to slip up at this late stage.
The Central Africans can still finish second in the group, and then could keep alive their hopes of advancing to the playoffs as one of the four best-placed runners-up, but even that would leave them up struggling to salvage their campaign.
“[We want to be] as high as possible [in the group],” Brys told state television CRTV. “So, we’d like to be the best second-placed team to qualify, and we’ll see afterwards… but to finish first [in the group] is not possible.”
It is rare to see such a defeatist attitude coming from the Cameroon camp, but it’s hard to argue with his pessimism.
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