(Reuters) - Cameroon return to the World Cup finals for the seventh time with one of the world’s most successful players in their ranks, but their prospects of progress past the first round look slim with group matches against hosts Brazil, Croatia and Mexico. Their 2014 squad has little of the charisma of previous teams who won worldwide affection with their dogged style and colourful kit.
Cameroon won only half of the eight games they needed to qualify for Brazil, benefiting along the way from group rivals Togo using an ineligible player in a match in which they beat Cameroon but then had the points reversed. It was only at the end of the preliminaries last November that Cameroon, who had squeezed through the group stage, showed any form, beating Tunisia 4-1 in their decisive qualifier to win a playoff for a place at the finals in Brazil.