World Cup 2018 Qualifying Draw: See Teams Cameroon Will Face

The road to the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia has been laid out for 141 teams from across the globe, with a star-studded Preliminary Draw ceremony which held at the St. Petersburg Konstantin Palace on Saturday July 25, 2015.

All 209 FIFA members registered to take part in the finals, and although 22 teams have already been eliminated, 851 matches will be played over the next 32 months to establish the 31 teams who will join Russia at the tournament in June 2018. World champions Germany were placed in the same group as the Czech Republic, Northern Ireland, Norway, Azerbaijan and San Marino..

Spain and Italy, the previous World Cup winners before Germany, were drawn together while the Netherlands and France, two other European powerhouses, were also placed in the same group.

Among some of the more eye-catching European pairings was England being drawn with Scotland, the old rivals who played the world’s first international in 1872.

Cameroon, the first African country to make a major impact in the World Cup when they reached the quarter-finals in 1990, must negotiate a tricky two-leg knockout tie against Somalia or Niger at the start of their campaign. Nigeria, under new coach Sunday Oliseh, will play either Djibouti or Swaziland, and Algeria - Africa's highest ranked nation - will play the winners of Tanzania v Malawi.

African champions Ivory Coast, seeking a fourth successive finals appearance, will play Liberia or Guinea-Bissau.
Angola will meet South Africa in arguably the toughest of the second-round meetings.

After fulfilling his duties as a Draw Assistant at Saturday’s Preliminary Draw for the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia™, Cameroonian goalscoring legend Samuel Eto’o gave us his view on what to expect in the African Zone, where the first round of the qualifying competition begins on 5 October.

“The gap between the strongest teams and the less-fancied ones has closed a lot. In fact, there’s hardly a gap to speak of anymore,” said Eto’o.
“I remember going into matches ten or 15 years ago thinking: ‘There’s such a big difference between us that we’re bound to win’. But these days you’re thinking: ‘This team is going to make life hard for us’, which is great for Africa as a whole.”