{"id":223404,"date":"2025-10-14T06:59:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-14T06:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/223404\/"},"modified":"2025-10-14T06:59:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T06:59:09","slug":"manchester-united-goalkeeper-faces-fresh-embarrassment-as-island-nation-deliver-setback-to-world-cup-bid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/223404\/","title":{"rendered":"Manchester United goalkeeper faces fresh embarrassment as island nation deliver setback to World Cup bid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Andre Onana\u2019s Cameroon have not been able to qualify for the 2026 World Cup via the CAF group stage and now face a series of make-or-break fixtures if they are to make the tournament.<\/p>\n

The Manchester United goalkeeper is currently out on loan at Turkish club Trabzonspor after losing his place as Old Trafford No.1 to Altay Bayindir<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Onana featured in Man United\u2019s somewhat embarrassing Carabao Cup exit to League Two side Grimsby Town<\/a> back in August and was culpable for the team\u2019s concessions in normal time, before being eliminated on penalties.<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana in World Cup blow<\/p>\n

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\"Manchester\n<\/p>\n

Manchester United goalkeeper Andre Onana (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

The fixture at Blundell Park could prove to be Onana\u2019s last in a Man United<\/a> shirt but it has proven not to be his final disappointment at such an early stage of the 2025\/26 campaign.<\/p>\n

Cameroon finished second in their qualifying group, four points behind winners Cape Verde. The island nation of approximately 500,000 people booked their place at a first-ever FIFA World Cup Finals with a 3-0 win over Eswatini while Cameroon drew versus Angola on Monday evening.<\/p>\n

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The goalkeeper now faces a play-off system contested by the four best-performing second-place teams from the CAF qualifying stage.<\/p>\n

The highest ranking team of the four plays the lowest-ranked nation, while the second and third-ranked sides face each other. The winner of each semi-final will then play one another to determine who becomes the sole CAF representative in the inter-confederation play-off.<\/p>\n

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If Cameroon are successful in the CAF play-offs during November, FIFA\u2019s inter-confederation play-off will pit them against teams from CONMEBOL (South America), CONCACAF<\/a> (North America), OFC (Oceania) and AFC (Asia).<\/p>\n

This qualifying tournament will be hosted in Mexico during March 2026, in which two of the six competing countries will progress to the 2026 World Cup<\/a>. The two highest ranking countries at the beginning of the play-off tournament will be seeded and automatically progress to one of the two finals, which decide who qualifies.<\/p>\n

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\"Andre\n<\/p>\n

Andre Onana is currently on loan at Trabzonspor (Image credit: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In all, Cameroon<\/a> could face up to four more high-stakes matches (2 x CAF; 2 x inter-confederation) to book their place at next year\u2019s World Cup. CAF group-mates Cape Verde, meanwhile, have already begun celebrating an historic qualification campaign and achievement. Cape Verde\u2019s population is approximately 58 times smaller than that of Cameroon.<\/p>\n

If the Indomitable Lions do not qualify for the 48-team tournament, it will be only their third such failing since 1986, having participated at Italia \u201890, USA \u201894, France \u201898, Korea-Japan 2002, South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014<\/a> and Qatar 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Andre Onana\u2019s Cameroon have not been able to qualify for the 2026 World Cup via the CAF group…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223405,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-223404","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223404","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223404"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223404\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223405"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223404"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223404"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223404"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}