Argentina 0-1 Cameroon
Italy 1990 | Group stage
San Siro, Milan
Attendance: 79,780
Cameroon goal: Francois Omam-Biyik (67′)
Teams
Coach: Carlos Bilardo
Starting XI: Nery Pumpido; Nestor Fabbri, Nestor Lorenzo, Roberto Sensini. Oscar Ruggeri, Juan Simon; Sergio Batista, Jose Basualdo, Jorge Burruchaga, Diego Maradona, Abel Balbo
Substitutions: Claudio Caniggia for Ruggeri (HT), Gabriel Calderon for Sensini (69)
Coach: Valeri Nepomnyashchi
Starting XI: Thomas N’Kono; Benjamin Massing, Bertin Ebwelle, Emmanuel Kunde, Stephen Tataw, Victor Ndip; Andre Kana-Biyik, Emile Mbouh, Louis Mfede; Francois Omam-Biyik, Cyrille Makanaky
Substitution: Roger Milla for Makanaky (81)
Hitherto head-to-head record
Cameroon and Argentina had never previously met.
Going into the game
Cameroon were gearing up for only their second-ever World Cup. In Spain eight years earlier, they were held to three draws in as many matches, resulting in their elimination after the first group stage. Goalkeepers Thomas N’Kono and Joseph-Antoine Bell, together with defender Emmanuel Kunde and seemingly ageless striker Roger Milla, were the sole survivors from the 1982 campaign, and eight of the 22 Indomitable Lions were playing their club football in Europe, mainly in France. In the qualifiers for the 1990 FIFA World Cup Italy™, the Cameroonians had topped a group that also featured Nigeria, Angola and Gabon.
In their curtain-raiser at FIFA’s flagship event, they ran into the holders, Argentina – a side boasting seven players who had lifted the trophy four years earlier in Mexico: Sergio Batista, Jorge Burruchaga, Ricardo Giusti, Julio Olarticoechea, Nery Pumpido, Oscar Ruggeri and a certain Diego Maradona. At the time, Argentina’s captain was plying his trade at Napoli in the host country and was fresh off a domestic league triumph. It is fair to say that Argentina were firm favourites to win the Group B opener.
The game
Although Cameroon’s defenders got off to a shaky start, nervously clearing their lines under pressure from the pacey attacking forays of Maradona, Burruchaga and Udinese’s Abel Balbo, they still managed to keep the iconic No10 quiet. On occasion, they threw themselves into challenges with perhaps a little too much gusto, with Benjamin Massing picking up a yellow card from French referee Michel Vautrot for a late tackle on the captain.
Spurred on by a San Siro crowd that cheered every Cameroonian attack, the Indomitable Lions began to roar in the first half and fashioned a gilt-edged chance. From a break that began after an Argentina corner, N’Kono released a team-mate on the right wing, and he picked out Cyrille Makanaky in a central position. A last-ditch clearance from Nestor Lorenzo was required to avert an opening goal. Although Francois Omam-Biyik tested Pumpido’s reflexes in the dying moments of the first half, the teams went in all square at the break.
When play resumed, the Cameroonians – who had been rattling the Albiceleste – suffered a major setback – Andre Kana-Biyik was dismissed on the hour for a trip on Claudio Caniggia, who was surging forward. However, Valery Nepomnyashchy’s ten men refused to throw in the towel and won a free-kick on the left. From Emmanuel Kunde’s cross, Makanaky’s looping flick-on found Omam-Biyik, who used all his athleticism to beat Roberto Sensini and hang in the air before unleashing a powerful header. Deceived by the bounce, Pumpido allowed the ball to slip through his fingers. The San Siro erupted in celebration as Cameroon broke the deadlock.
The Africans kept pouring forward, determined to claim their maiden World Cup victory. After Massing was also dismissed for a second yellow card for another rough tackle on Caniggia, Roger Milla, who had entered the fray a few minutes earlier, launched a blistering counter-attack, only for Emile Mbouh to squander the opportunity by firing well off target. In the end, it mattered little, as the Indomitable Lions were able to celebrate what once seemed unthinkable: they had toppling the reigning world champions.
Quotes
“When we entered the shared warm-up area, the South Americans seemed a little haughty. As soon as we launched into our battle cries, I saw the fear in their eyes. After that triumph over Argentina, people were saying that we could already go home and that we’d had a successful World Cup.”
Andre Kana-Biyik, Cameroon defender
“At the time, I couldn’t really believe it. I’d scored plenty of other goals in my career but that one came at my very first World Cup against none other than Maradona’s Argentina. It took on an entirely different dimension because nobody had given us a hope of winning. That goal was when I truly announced myself on the global stage.”
Francois Omam-Biyik, Cameroon goalscorer
“Diego was uncomfortable and we didn’t let him do his thing. The plan was to stop him from settling into his game, and we executed it well through teamwork and tight marking. We knew that we had to assert our physical strength to make them feel like it would be hard to beat us. For us, the match actually started during the warm-up session, which took place in the same room for both teams. We went out there and the Argentines were singing, but we started to sing even louder and they ended up leaving. It was a psychological battle.”
Thomas N’Kono, Cameroon goalkeeper
“Anything can happen in football, from wins, losses and draws to shocks and injustices. But losing in the manner we did is simply unacceptable. We let the match slip away and made every mistake going.”
Carlos Bilardo, Argentina coach
“[Bilardo] barely said a word in the Meazza dressing rooms, but he gathered us all together in a kind of auditorium back at the Trigoria training ground and told us that our [second] tie against the Soviet Union was a must-win encounter and that he would rather do anything other than return to Buenos Aires after a first-round exit.”
Pedro Troglio, Argentina midfielder
Stats
3
Cameroon, Brazil and Portugal form a trio of teams to have had a pair of players receive their marching orders in the same World Cup match on two occasions. Echoing the exploits of Andre Kana-Biyik and Benjamin Massing in 1990, Rigobert Song and Lauren both saw red in their side’s 1-1 stalemate against Chile in 1998. In the early days of the competition, Brazil’s Zeze Procopio and Machado had both been sent for an early bath in the 1-1 extra-time draw against Czechoslovakia in the quarter-finals of the 1938 World Cup. Their compatriots Nilton Santos and Humberto suffered the same fate in a 4-2 loss against Hungary in the 1954 quarter-finals. Portugal were dealt an equivalent blow as Joao Pinto and Beto were sent packing by the referee at the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan™ in a 1-0 defeat by Korea Republic, while Costinha and Deco were banished to the dressing room in their side’s 1-0 win against the Netherlands in 2006.
2.96
Oman-Biyik’s leap for his headed goal was recorded at 2.96m, 3cm higher than Cristiano Ronaldo’s astonishing 2.93m aerial assault to score for Real Madrid in their 1-1 UEFA Champions League encounter with Manchester United in 2012-13.
1
Argentina were the second reigning world champions to lose the first match of their title defence. They had found themselves in the same position at the 1982 World Cup after a 1-0 loss to Belgium following their success at the 1978 edition. For their part, 1938 winners Italy had lost 3-2 to Sweden at the 1950 tournament. Since then, France in 2002, Spain in 2014 and Germany in 2018 have joined the same unfortunate club.
