Spain, Australia, Cameroon exit as Dutch survive scare to progess with Chile and Croatia revive World Cup hopes

Cameroon and Croatia squared off this evening 18/06/2014 in Group A action at the Arena Amazonia in Manaus with both teams looking to secure their first points after losing their opening encounters. The Netherlands and Chile had already booked their tickets in the next round earlier in the day. The Dutch and the Australians played out a 3-2 thriller in the first fixture, with the Europeans surviving an early scare to prevail and become the first team to advance to the round of sixteen. The Chileans caused another shocker in the tournament by eliminating the Defending Champions Spain 2-0 at the Maracana in the second fixture to throw the tournament wide open. It was the Cameroonians who started the brighter of the two and made some positive runs in the Croatian penalty area but the Eastern Europeans held firm. It would be the Croatians though who took the lead in the 11^th minute as a ball played into the Cameroon half by Darijo Srna was poorly cleared by the defense and it fell to the feet of Perisic who did well to find Olic on the far post and the number 18 fired in a shot past Itandje in the Cameroon goal. 1-0 to Croatia. Cameroon needed to get back in the game as another loss would have meant certain elimination

In the 21^st minute the Africans forced a corner but the effort was wasted. In the 35^th minute Croatia won a corner of their own with a chance to increase their lead but Perisic’s header was too high. In the 38^th Sammir’s effort for Croatia was saved. In the 40^th minute Cameroon’s task got a little harder after Song was shown a red card for hitting Mandzukic in the back. The Croatians decided to seize the opportunity as they now had the man advantage. At half time the score was Croatia 1, Cameroon 0. At the resumption it didn’t take long for Croatia to increase their lead as a poor clearance from Itandje set up Perisic who made no mistake.  In the 58^th Croatia won a freekick in a dangerous position after a foul in the Cameroon area, but the ensuing free kick was wasted by Srna and the score line remained 2-0. In the 61^st minute though, Croatia won a corner which was swung in by Pranjic and Mandzukic made no mistake in increasing the Europeans’ lead. 3-0 Croatia and they were now in the driving seat. In the 68^th minute Aboubakar of Cameroon had a good chance to get the West Africans on the scoreboard but his shot went over the bar. In the 69^th Croatia made a change as Edouardo replaced Olic and Cameroon replaced Aboubakr with Webo. In the 72^nd Kovacic replaced Sammir.

Croatia would then increase their lead as an initial shot from Eduardo was blocked by Itandje. Unfortunately for the Cameroon custodian, the ball fell straight to Mandzukic who made no mistake. 4-0 Croatia. In the 85^th minute Cameroon had a great chance to get on the scoreboard but Moukandjo fired just wide and the score remained the same.  There were no further scores in the game as the Eastern Europeans held on for the win and revived their World Cup hopes. Cameroon however join Spain and Australia on their way out.