Song sings of a bright future for Cameroon despite early Qatar exit

Cameroon's World Cup ended in a blaze of glory as they secured a first win in 20 years at the tournament with a 1-0 victory over Brazil on Friday night, but unfortunately it was not enough to take them through to the knockout stage.

The Indomitable Lions needed to beat a Brazil side mostly made up of reserves and hope that Serbia could overcome Switzerland, but the Swiss won 3-2 to grab second spot in Group G behind the Brazilians to knock Cameroon out.

“It's a real shame that we have to go home now, but you need to look on the bright side. We need to keep working and keep moving, I trust in my players,” coach Rigobert Song told a postgame media conference.

Vincent Aboubakar scored a superb header in second-half stoppage time before getting sent off for collecting a second yellow card during his wild celebration of the goal that gave Cameroon their first win at the World Cup since beating Saudi Arabia in 2002.

That goal at the Lusail Stadium made also made Cameroon the first African nation to beat Brazil at a World Cup.

“I'm trying to get across a team sprit, that lion's spirit, which has been the key to Cameroon teams over the years. We have a young team and perhaps we haven't had enough time together, but we can be a very, very good team,” Song said.

Song's goalkeeper Devis Epassy walked away with the man of the match award but there was still disappointment despite the win.

“We can be proud of what we've done tonight because we've shown that we can also be a top team, we worked hard for each other, we worked very hard,” he said.

“Unfortunately though, we don't qualify for the next round, that's why we are not too happy, but it's not on account of tonight's performance.”