Cameroon must ignore infighting to have a chance

Cameroon's goalkeeper Charles Itandje has been the saviour of his team's qualifying campaign. Photograph: Pierre-Philippe Marcou/AFP/Getty Images

The curiosity of Cameroon and the World Cup is that the country is both Africa’s highest achiever and its worst under-performer. Sixteen other nations on the continent have a bigger population than Cameroon’s (which is around 22 million) but none has left as big a mark on the global stage, nor graced it as often.

As the Indomitable Lions get ready to make their seventh appearance in the finals, it is typically difficult to predict whether they are going to eat themselves again or emulate their 1990 romp to the quarter-final, when Roger Milla and Co provided what remains an unsurpassed African contribution to the world’s showpiece tournament