It was a walk-off winning goal for Cameroon’s Vincent Aboubakar. Not that kind of walk-off.
Aboubakar scored the winning goal in stoppage time of Cameroon’s 1-0 victory over World Cup-favorite Brazil, but he was immediately ejected after he removed his jersey in celebration and received his second yellow card of the game.
Aboubakar had scored on a header off a cross by Jerome Ngom Mbekeli in the 92nd minute, netting the only goal allowed by Brazil in group stage. That set off a wild celebration, during which he took off his jersey. Doing so is considered excessive celebration in soccer, resulting in a yellow card.
Aboubakar may have been under the impression that he had just put Cameroon on the verge of advancing to the round of 16, warranting an excessive celebration. But the team still needed to score another goal to win the tiebreaker, and also get a late equalizer from Serbia in its matchup against Switzerland, in order to advance.
Neither happened, as Cameroon managed a one-goal victory and Switzerland held on for a 3-2 win. But defeating Brazil, which had not lost a group stage game since 1998, was an accomplishment in itself. Cameroon became the first African team to defeat Brazil in the World Cup.
And Aboubakar left the pitch in style.
Goalkeeper Devis Epassy did all he could to help keep Cameroon in position to advance. The goalkeeper made a series of diving stops against Brazil to keep them scoreless, including a beautiful diving stop on a header by Gabriel Martinelli where he tipped the ball over the crossbar in the 14th minute.
He finished with seven saves, making a leaping stop on a header by Bruno Guimarães late in stoppage time to preserve the win.
Brazil, which had already advanced to the round of 16, was looking to become the first team in the 2022 World Cup to win all three group stage games. They were unable to do so, allowing their first goal after defeating Serbia 2-0 and Switzerland 1-0.
With the loss, Brazil finished tied with Switzerland with six points each but took the top spot in Group G on the goal-differential tiebreaker. Both teams advance to the knockout stage, where Brazil will play South Korea on Monday and Switzerland will take on Portugal on Tuesday.
