On 8 June 30 years ago, the Indomitable Lions of Cameroon beat the world champions Argentina in the opening match of Italia 90. It was the start of a splendid run that was interrupted in the quarter-finals, against England

In 1990, Valery Nepomnyy brought the Cameroon National Team to the quarter-finals of the World Cup in Italy. Our coach was also invited after the first game, when Cameroon beat Argentina with the legendary Maradona in the composition.

One reads among the ancient Cameroonian proverbs:

God set his eyes on us, so that we would not look back. It must be hard to have a past like the summer of 1990, and be forced to look elsewhere.

Not always the Cameroon made it, and the resounding World Cup in Italy, which in the hopes of the football school of a country and a continent was to be the forerunner for history. Don't look back, they say: you make it easy when you haven't seen the Cameroon of Italia '90.

[su_youtube_advanced url="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGJ0Zujnax0″]

On 8 June thirty years ago in Milan, there was an air of celebration, and two tasks for the world champions Argentina: that of opening the World Cup of Magical Nights, and that of facing the Cameroon team at its second World Cup experience. It was returning after failing against Zambia to qualify for Mexico '86, and just three months earlier from a African Cup of Nations ended badly, with elimination in the group stage as defending champion. Maradona and comrades in Cameroon should not seem an irresistible obstacle, and after the opening ceremony, after Edoardo Bennato and Gianna Nannini in playback and the parading flags, even if biased in favour of the Africans, the over 73,000 spectators at the Meazza are prepared for a predictable script. Italia '90 opens, and it is one of those occasions when being there counts for much more than a result that is almost a foregone conclusion. Almost. As it was when Cameroon won 1-0 against Argentina.