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Serbia make first half World Cup history against Cameroon

The tournament dark horses wrote their names into the history

Serbia made World Cup history in their Group G clash with Cameroon in what has since turned into one of the games of the tournament.

The pair began the day on no points after they lost to Brazil and Switzerland respectively in their opening fixtures, and it was the African side that took the lead after half an hour, as Jean-Charles Castelletto nodded home after Alexander Mitrovic had seen his effort rebound off the post and bounce back out.

But, Serbia remained a serious threat and were deservedly back in the game in first half stoppage time when Strahinja Pavlović found the back of the net from a set piece, before Sergej Milinkovic-Savic added a quick-fire second deep into the added six minutes, with his effort from the edge of the penalty area finding the corner of the net.

It wrote the Eastern Europeans into history in the process too, with no other side having ever scored twice in stoppage time at the end of the first half in the history of the World Cup.

They have, of course, been aided by the increased added time played at this tournament, which has seen 90 minute games come closer to 100 minute marathons. Nonetheless, it remains an impressive achievement that has never been managed before and is unlikely to be managed again any time soon.

It has since become something of a bonkers game, with Serbia adding a third goal minutes after half time before Cameroon substitute Vincent Aboubakar twice beat the offside trap, first to score an audacious lob and then to set the ball on a plate for Eric-Maxim Choupo Moting to level the game at 3-3 with 20 minutes to play.

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Ben Browning

Football writer and analyst. Long-time writer of all things Arsenal and avid watcher of European football. Happy to discuss all things football over on Twitter.

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