Cameroon and Serbia was one of the most exciting matches of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, with a six-goal-thriller that had absolutely everything, from great goals to very serious errors by the defensive line of both teams in general, which allowed a number of opportunities constantly.
Two teams of very direct practices in their ideas, which gave the match a lot of attacking transitions, at high speeds.
Serbia, for their part, were the one that dominated the ball and spaces in most of the match until the 3-3 shocking Cameroon comeback, with intense counter-pressure and a fairly compact defensive block except for Cameroon’s 1-0 goal from a set-piece.
Serbia were superior in offensive intentions and security in front of the goal.
The game took a complete turn when, precisely and curiously, they put themselves on top of the African team 3-1 with a goal from Aleksandar Mitrovic.
Rigobert Song and his controversy with André Onana was reflected in the game, and much of this “traditional” style that the Inter Milan goalkeeper was criticised for was quite positive for Cameroon, who scored the last two goals in this way and were generating occasions frequently between the last defensive line like this.
With this result, Group G is left with a decisive match in the final round between Switzerland-Serbia and a Cameroon team that will have to face Brazil.
In this tactical analysis, we dive into the tactics of both teams and see in the form of analysis how Rigobert Song’s Cameroon enjoy a great comeback against Serbia.
Lineups
Serbia did not change their intentions from their 3-4-2-1 against Brazil.
Dragan Stojkovic’s men went with Vanja Milinkovic-Savic in goal, with a back-three made up of Nikola Milenkovic, Strahinja Pavlovic and Milos Veljkovic, with Filip Kostic and Andrija Zivkovic being the wing-backs; The double-pivot underwent a change, as well as the left-wing-back, with the entry of Nemanja Maksimovic for Nemanja Gudelj, who accompanied Sasa Lukic.
Finally, forwards Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, Dusan Tadic and Aleksandar Mitrovic completed the starting XI.
Rigobert Song’s Cameroon chose a 4-3-3 with Devis Epassy as goalkeeper after the departure of André Onana. Collins Fai and Nouhou Tolo were the full-backs, with Jean-Charles Castelletto and Nikolas N’Koulou in the centre of defence. Martin Hongla, André Zambo Anguissa and Pierre Kundé made up the midfield trio, joined by Bryan Mbeumo, Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting and Karl Toko Ekambi in attack.
Serbia’s direct play and threat from the wings
The entry of Filip Kostic for Filip Mladenovic, who played against Brazil in their first match of the 2022 World Cup, was positive in the attacking phase for Serbia. His speed, verticality and physical power to overcome enemies with his dribbling and rapid changes of pace allowed Stojkovic’s team to reach the last third with ease.
Cameroon sought to press the Balkans quite high, who, faced with somewhat disorderly pressure, found solutions behind their backs with Nemanja Maksimovic or Sasa Lukic, or with deep movements from Sergej and Dusan to help their midfielders, in order to receive, run and progress towards the wings with passes, where Kostic and Zivkovic were waiting wide open.
This was the plan that Serbia carried out, once in the middle third, to seek to open the game towards the wings after quick combinations and thus free spaces on the outside so that these fast players could run behind the backs of the African full-backs, and send crosses to Aleksandar Mitrovic, one of the best headers in the world, due to his height, physique and execution technique. At times they could run with ease and space, at others they had to be more patient and rely on the 1v1 ability of these two outside players, or the through-passes of Tadic and Milinkovic-Savic who were playing very mobile roles, which hurt Cameroon.
Cameroon’s pressure was to try to guide and outline the pass of one of the central defenders, towards the wing-back or the wide centre-back who played more outside in the back-three. So one of the wingers on his side, Toko Ekambi or Mbeumo would make aggressive jumps in search of the ball. In the first few minutes, things seemed to be working out, but the inside passes from wing-backs and Pavlovic’s good ability to progress through the middle made them beat the rival pressure very quickly.
In this figure, we can see how Serbia broke the pressure of the Song team with different methods. In this case, Sasa Lukic received with a lot of space to turn his body quickly through an oriented control and with almost the entire Cameroon team pressing on one side, he was able to change the orientation of the game to the weak side where Zivkovic or Kostic were pinning the flanks, in this sequence, it was Andrija, the right-wing-back.
It seems like Serbia was finding a loose-knit Cameroon working on high pressure. Therefore they were playing very easily these types of inside-out passes and their possession-conductors were receiving the ball very calmly and with time to think. The distance between the players of Rigobert Song’s team were not natural and positive, which generated many pockets of spaces in which the Serbian players sought to activate.
Filip Kostic really provided a lot of threat in attack. It was a completely different game on that flank, which offered more fresh ideas, more speed and better decisions with the ball than the previous match of Stojkovic’s men with Mladenovic in that position. With players like Tadic and Milinkovic-Savic in fine form executing passes between the lines for him to run, Serbia found a way to harm Cameroon there.
This was a repetitive image in the match. When Cameroon closed on the central zones, Tadic received to the side of his marker and found Kostic who did not stop making this type of runs during the match, from outside to inside to penetrate the rival area and take cut-back crosses.
One of the interesting movements that Serbia also carried out on the wing was with rotations between one of the inverted wingers, Tadic or Milinkovic-Savic, who received passes further back from their wing-backs and these took the outside channels where their good technique help them to execute crosses to the box, always looking for the same goal – Mitrovic’s head. The Fulham striker was always between the two centre-backs and headed many crosses due to the inattention of these two defenders with the distance they left between them and the Serbian centre-forward appeared very alone.
A similar pattern to find spaces and confuse the Cameroonian defenders, was these types of deeper passes from the wing-backs, towards one of the midfielders who previously released them into the outside channel. For example, if Lukic or Maksimovic found this pass shown above to their wing-backs, they themselves accompanied the play with their diagonal runs to receive even as wingers in the rival box.
Maksimovic’s role was very important and it was another extremely positive entry for Serbia on the ball, as he offered more progression and precision in his touches going forward than Gudelj showed against Brazil. The midfielder showed that timing and offensive style that he has been able to show in his teams as box-to-box.
In this sequence, the attack has been carried out from the right, with a previous pass from Nemanja Maksimovic to Andrija Zivkovic, wide open on his right wing, and the midfielder making a run into the opponent’s area, which received but couldn’t get past the defender which blocked the cross.
The wing-backs are so important for Serbia that in the third goal, which showed much more of what Serbia is looking for in their direct football approach, it left both Kostic and Zivkovic on each side of the play inside the Cameroon box, in addition to the vital participations of each one. The first with his aggressive ball-carrying and the second for his feint and assist that freed Mitrovic to make it 3-1 at that point in the match.
Two other vital players were Milinkovic-Savic and Tadic, who were much more dynamic to find where to receive the ball and combine with each other. In fact, both had more functional roles, exchanging channels from the central areas which greatly confused the Cameroonians and they opened up spaces with their simple movements.
They were usually at a distance as shown in the image below. As the game focused on the final third, they looked to float behind the midfield line, where one could receive and the other be the easier option in front of him, in order to hit one-two and end up in the Cameroon box or find Mitrovic with more space to run into the area. However, they also execute movements like if one receives, the other runs between the centre-backs or centre-back-full-back, to shoot close to the rival goal. It was very synergic and energetic between these two which is wonderful news for Serbia.
They also benefited a lot from Mitrovic, who with his own presence, dragged a lot of marking from the Cameroonians, and this generated gaps where Tadic or Milinkovic-Savic received the ball to continue attacking and progressing through the pitch. The striker moved close to his comfort zone, quite high on the attacking third, but they were vital since when he descended lower, someone would go behind him to go hand in hand against the defender.
Another method was used from out to in, with Mitrovic approaching the wide zones more, thus creating space behind him that Tadic took advantage of looking for a through-pass that could put him in front of the goalkeeper. However, this also created three movements. Aleksandar’s one, Zivkovic with overlapping runs and Tadic with underlapping runs. Exactly this image ended in a shot to the post, after a great dribble from Mitrovic inside the box, and a one-two combination with Ajax‘s #10.
In the offensive phase, it was a great game for Serbia. Finding simple solutions to beat the pressure, electric movements from almost all of his attacking elements and a lot of aggressiveness to look for each ball into space, as well as the confidence to receive in small pockets of space.
Cameroon’s traditional style and Serbia’s loss of concentration
The last few days have been full of controversy within the Cameroon dressing room. In the first match against Switzerland, André Onana showed his associative skills outside his own area and went far enough to build numerical superiorities with him as a passer. He even made a record for the most touches of a goalkeeper outside the box, in a World Cup. Normally these would be tactical requests from the coach, but that didn’t turn out to be the case.
Onaná criticized the “traditional” style of his coach Song that never asked him for this type of movement outside his area or a more positional football with modern passes from the goalkeeper. The search of the Africans is clear, and it was seen in the match against Serbia: Long-balls to their wingers or forwards, who are very good at running into space and dragging marks.
Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting was immense in this type of action. He used to go out to win the aerial duel, thus creating spaces behind him that were attacked by Bryan Mbeumo, Toko Ekambi or Vincent Aboubakar who entered in the second half, and his substitution had a great positive connotation for Cameroon, not only for scoring a goal, but also for by understanding these types of movements that, if applied well, are clinical, and they were.
In the second half, after Serbia’s third goal, it seemed the opposite of what a two-goal advantage can give you. Stojkovic’s men were extremely passive in their defensive idea and very messy. They further raised the lines and made immature decisions as to how to defend the result. It was as if nothing had happened and the match was still 0-0, but in rather poor form on the part of the Serbian team.
Another of the turning points in Serbia’s defensive game was how the departure of Strahinja Pavlovic due to injury seriously affected the game. Stefan Mitrovic was impetuous, and slow and one of the reasons why Cameroon selected the left flank as the weakest and the best to attack, added to Kostic’s little defensive support. The team lost aggressiveness, temper, presence and timing in their actions to clear the danger. This was what the Salzburg defender offered.
The play below did not end in a goal, but it was one of the previous warnings. Maksimovic had to act as a central defender on several occasions, covering not only Filip Kostic because he was going very high, but even Mitrovic who jumped to put pressure on the ball-holders and had a hard time tracking back the runs. Even in this sequence, the player closest to the ball is not Mitrovic, but Maksimovic. A defensive disaster.
Another example of these slow, late jumps and with little sense on the part of Mitrovic, who strayed too far from his line and also had almost zero contribution and commitment from Kostic on the defensive end, something that has been known since his times at Eintracht Frankfurt.
Cameroon’s second goal, two minutes before scoring the third and equalizer, which was executed in the same way, was the classic demonstration of what Cameroon was looking for throughout the match with these long balls from one of the central defenders who normally was Castelletto.
The image below shows three things: Mitrovic’s slow jumps, once again, Kostic’s distance with his back-five, and the extremely intelligent movement of Choupo-Moting to drop deep and drag his marker, which enjoyed more the presence of a traditional 9 like Aboubakar who started running to the space generated and finished the play with great technique.
Another of the clear things in this play, as in the next goal for Song’s team, was how poorly marked the offside line was by Nikola Milenkovic, who with the lack of coordination of the entire line, was totally confused as to when to return or go, and enabled completely he position to Aboubakar in the two goals of the second half. In addition to the fact that, in those two sequences, there was no defensive support from Andrija Zivkovic either.
Conclusion
Serbia played a really good game with the ball, which was clouded by very poor defensive coordination and an attitude that did not belong in a game in which they were winning by two goals. Cameroon found the weaknesses of Stojkovic’s team, and in the face of controversy and criticism of a very classic game, they obtained a point that will keep them alive until the end of the group stage.
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