cameroonian comeback seals famous win over swiss (fifa.com) 16 jun 2015
cameroon turned in a dynamic second-half showing to defeat switzerland 2-1 for their first win over a european opponent at a fifa women’s world cup™.
the result secured second spot in group c for the africans behind japan, and set up a last-16 meeting with china pr.
both teams pushed forward at every opportunity, allowing for an entertaining contest, with cameroon dominating the second half after equalising soon after the break.
early on swiss captain martina moser floated a free-kick over the backline to ana maria crnogorcevic, who narrowly failed to make contact with the goalkeeper exposed.
cameroon skipper christine manie powered in a header directly from a corner, which was perhaps as close as the africans came to scoring in the first half.
cameroon then failed to deal with a forward ball, allowing ramona bachmann through on goal, but goalkeeper anette ngo ndom just got enough on the block to see it go wide. but switzerland were not to be denied, and bachmann burst into the penalty area before pulling the ball back for crnogorcevic to comfortably slot home from near the penalty spot.
despite the goal it was cameroon, backed by a healthy and noisy contingent, who enjoyed a strong passage of play with several half-sights of goal. cameroon’s gaelle enganamouit was, as always, dangerous with her strong running. however, switzerland could have doubled their advantage with fabienne humm’s header blocked by a second excellent save from ngo ndon.
cameroon made a dream restart with gabrielle onguene striking two minutes after the interval, with a sweet finish from 18 yards following a pullback from the byline. the goal saw cameroon find their confidence and they took the lead just past the hour mark, as madeleine ngono mani powered in a close-range header just five minutes after coming on following a dynamic run and cross from onguene.
the dynamic onguene could have repeated her feat with yet another amazing run down the right, but francine zouga saw her shot blocked on the line by vanessa bernauer.
