Toli Sous le Manguier

Finke has never coached an international side before, nor had he worked in Africa, but in his 16 years at Freiburg he introduced a radical pressing game. He is an intriguing figure in that he seems more concerned by the style of football his team plays than by making vast sums of money from the game and, perhaps because of that, he has never won a trophy. What he has proved again and again, though, is that he is capable of moulding less than brilliant raw material into an effective side.

He got lucky in his first game - although he had taken charge at the last minute because of Akono's illness - losing in Togo only for Cameroon to be awarded the game as Togo fielded an ineligible player, but a 0-0 draw in DR Congo and a 1-0 home win over Libya saw Cameroon top their group. Tunisia was a kindly draw, but Cameroon took full advantage, keeping another clean sheet in drawing in Rades, before cutting lose and winning the home leg 4-1.

There is an air of uncertainty about them, of course, but if Eto'o is in form, there is enough there to make Cameroon competitive. Jean Makoun, Eyong Enoh, and Alex Song are a fine midfield trio and the Aurelien Chedjou/Nicolas N'Koulou central defensive pairing - with Joel Matip in reserve - looks solid.

That's not to say Cameroon will win the World Cup or that they're going to sweep through the group, but they're better than they were a year ago, and might be even better than that next summer. Certainly at this stage there seems lit