Spain 1982

SPAIN 1982

An increase in the number of teams participating in the World Cup – up from 16 to 24 – saw Africa awarded a second representative. Cameroon and Algeria were the new kids on the World Cup block after they had earned their places through 4 rounds of qualifiers. And what an impact they made…

Algeria, drawn in Group B with West Gemany, Austria and Chile, signalled their intentions with a stunning 2-1 win over West Germany. Goals from Rabah Madjer and Lakhdar Belloumi sealed Africa’s second win at the finals and one of the most surprising upsets to that point in the history of the World Cup.

They fell to a defeat against Austria in their next game before staging a courageous 3-2 win over Chile in their final match. Unfortunately for the Algerians, they were then crafted out of the tournament by collusion between the Austrians and Germans, who played out a pre-determined 1-0 win to Germany, so they could both progress to the second round instead. It was a match that led to the rule that sees all the last group games start simultaneously so as to avoid any fixed results.

Cameroon also impressed the football aficionados, as they remained undefeated in Group A that also included Italy, Poland and Peru. Consecutive 0-0 draws with Peru and Poland was followed up by a 1-1 draw against Italy, with Gregoire Mbida canceling out Francesco Graziani’s opener for the Azurri. Cameroon, however, were elbowed out of a place in the next round by the mere fact that the Italians had scored a single goal more.

Once again, an African team had failed to progress beyond the first round but the impressive performances from both Algeria and Cameroon sounded the warning to the rest of the world: African football was on the rise.

GROUP STANDINGS	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	PTS
Poland	3	1	2	0	5	1	4
Italy	3	0	3	0	2	2	3
Cameroon	3	0	3	0	1	1	3
Peru	3	0	2	1	2	6	2

GROUP STANDINGS	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	PTS
West Germany	3	2	0	1	6	3	4
Austria	3	2	0	1	3	1	4
Algeria	3	2	0	1	5	5	4
Chile	3	0	0	3	3	8	0